Fish and Wildlife attitude

[10pan]

A day of river detecting was ruined today by a DNR agent that was ignorant about GA law concerning MDing. After pulling me out of the water and making a huge scene in front of my kids and others saying I did not own the land that I had no right to be there detecting, he was informed by someone on the phone that I was allowed to be there. He then read the same law I told him about to start with back to me as if I didn't know.
The rest of the day was spent being harassed by city police and county sheriff deputies looking for someone digging huge holes in the county park. No doubt this was called in by the shamed DNR guy because I was in the river and did not detect at all on land. I guess what bothered me the most was all this took place with him wearing bullet proof vest and military style getup. Why is that needed to harass fisherman and people metal detecting and other criminal outlaw activities that a Fish and Wildlife agent may come across. What has happened to our country?

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Ouch. Bummer This kind of stuff is exactly why 90% of my hunting nowadays, is done at night. So peaceful. So serene

 

[Deft Tones]

What if that Agent stumbles upon a "grow"? That vest might allow him enough time to call for back-up. 100 more other reasons possible too.

Don't flatter yourself thinking he's all dressed up to play just for you.

And now he knows the law himself.

 

[10pan]

The majority of their time is spent on public shorelines checking for fishing license to generate income. Maybe my next trip out MDing I should go in military gear and loaded for bear. you never know when I might stumble across a grow field.

 

[10pan]

need to educate myself so I can do this.

 

[Getter]

It's amazing how many cops are ignorant about the laws they are tasked with enforcing. Even worse? The ones who play congress and make it up as they go along.

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Cops are allowed to make mistakes but YOU are not!

 

[Honest Samuel]

It sounds like this bully and thug is also a Loser. Sorry for you.

 

[P.ALLEN]

the equipment is now standard for those folks so I don't see the issue with that, but being unprofessional in front of a citizen and their family is a different matter, he should have known better. What I do is print out the legal info for the state county or local jurisdiction that I am hunting in and keep it in my wallet. I'm not saying keep em in there all the time, just for the places you are going on that hunt. Saves a lot of time when you can show them instead of telling. Most of the times me words no work good (that's what my wife says but I still love her) so it's best to have something in writing with the laws and statutes so they can read it and go suck an egg. Sometimes when an officer is working a natural resources gig, it's easy to get emotional about that park or the culture of the area they work in, still he shouldn't have been a dick and tried to get his buddies to harass you. Passion is what protects our sport and our natural areas. Just being objective, no disrespect to you, I'm sorry that happened.

Also, did he have a mustache? I have a theory about law enforcement folks with mustaches.

 

[Slingshot]

Enforcing the law without knowledge of the law - typical. Maybe GA can get them the Nazi style helmets to go with the rest of their garb. I have had numerous brushes with GA DNR through the years as I was a citizen of the state for 60 years, hunter, fisherman, and detectorist. It's hard to deal with one who "knows" what he is talking about, and you always have to stand your ground with them because if they mistakenly make an arrest then they will conjure up some way to make it stick. The TN TVA guys are the absolute worst ones ever, and make the GA DNR guys look like saints.

 

[walnuttree]

Where I live, there's State police, township police and numerous Park police. I see the township police and the Park police rangers set up for speeders. Don't know why the Park police are doing traffic duty. Also probably no one allowed to cool off in the local river spots anymore on those sweltering summer days, so many Park ranger police, never seen that 20 years ago. Yeah I hope there's not an "us and Them" attitude, where everyone's considered a lawbreaker. If you deal with criminals everyday maybe you start thinking everyone is up to no good?

 

[huntsman53]

"Ignorance is not a good defense!" is used too often by Fish & Wildlife Officers as well BLM and National Forest Rangers against users of State and Federal resources (i.e. waters and lands). In fact, the USDA which is over all of the National Forest Regional and District offices and Ranger Stations have left quite a bit of the rule, policy and prohibition making processes up to the Head Rangers of these offices to govern as they see fit, so that the USDA will not have to deal with much of the fallout. Well let me tell you, that some of these male and yes, female Head Rangers are downright, get in your' face tyrants and often card carrying liberals who would arrest you just for farting in the air while on National Forest lands, if they could. It is well past time to organize and fight these out of control agencies and get our' public lands back in the hands of the people and the States within which they lie.


Frank

 

[b3y0nd3r]

UH LAWSUIT? Harassment of any kind should not be tolerated. Okay he's doing his job but apparently not if he doesn't understand what your doing. Talk to a lawyer if possible(meaning you want to pursue it).

 

[releventchair]

Do you want to apologise to me now in front of my kids ,or later in front of your boss?

 

[Honest Samuel]

Let the spent their time searching for pot growers.

 

[junkhunt]

It's really to bad that a lot of police let that badge go to there head.

 

[junkhunt]

Let the spent their time searching for pot growers.

It's safer for them searching for dad and the kids trying to enjoy their day.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

It's safer for them searching for dad and the kids trying to enjoy their day.

Don't you know what the difference is? The pot growers didn't ask "can I grow and sell pot here?" But the md'rs probably poked their head into a bunch of offices asking "can I ?"


If pot growers would only have the courtesy to ask, they too would be told no. Then they too could start forums lamenting their lack of freedoms.

 

[Icewing]

While I agree this is not the "free country" that we were promised as kids, and our police are militarized beyond reason. Its a sad reality that good cops have to wear some of that getup these days because of bad cops and the simple minded people who target them at random. However if he has three guns and looks like a SWAT on regular duty you can be sure he is a rookie and is still scared of his own shadow. Good luck.