Missouri Water Patrol Getting Ready For Drunken Boater Crackdown.

[Justin Spencer]

If someone is so drunk they are not able to make sound decisions and start fights and act foolish, 9 time out of 10 their friends do not want anything to do with them.

That is exactly right, when something like this happens we get apology after apology and assurances that the trouble causer will never be back with them. Sometimes we let the group come back sometimes we don't. I'm sure glad the NFoW doesn't have many free flinging minor peckers peeking out, and I think water patrol deserves credit for curbing this kind of behavior. We have a great guy that writes plenty of tickets, but stops with warnings often times if people are respectful and straightforward with him. He makes minors give him their parents phone number and calls the parents to let them know what has gone on. Bet that makes a much bigger impression than a ticket that a kid can hide from the folks, like I did.

[Greasy B]

Smart Azz ......Al hit the nail on the head....head down to one of the local rivers on the weekend and see what its like. Drunken idiots fighting X3, drunken minors with their shorts off shaking their peckers at YOUNG girls who are with their families...Some goons hiking up the woods in front of me tossing two garbage bags full of cans into the woods thinking it was alright. This was exactly one hour in the Stanton area. I had 6 guys tied up on different incidents all of which occurred on the river in a 500 yard section. Think about how much goes unreported.

I am fine with going out and having a couple of cocktails on the river however, more than a few of these idiots cause major problems. And the .08 thing.....It all depends on your bodies ability to process the alcohol.

I have seen people who have been around .24 do well on SFST's. I have seen others around .08 that couldn't even stand. Tolerance is alot of it.

I am all for making arrests for DWI and BWI and even protective custodys. If someone is so drunk they are not able to make sound decisions and start fights and act foolish, 9 time out of 10 their friends do not want anything to do with them.

As far as BWI and DWI go, I rather see someone off of the river or road. I invite anyone who disagrees to ask any law enforcement personnel what it is like going to someone's house at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to do a death notification. It is the most aweful and humbling feeling there is. In a majority of these cases the person was killed in a MVA and alcohol was involved.

Take note: someone crosses the centerline and hits your family head on, in seconds your whole life is destroyed....Your kids and wife are laying in a body bag roadside. The guy driving is fine but he is only a .08........Is .08 still alright then or where does the limit need to be? Someone might say well thats different if they were involved in an accident. It really is not. A drunk driver is a time bomb on the roadway.

Don't recognize me as someone in uniform...Shouldn't even have brought it up a couple of posts ago. I'm not like that.

Can't argue with too much of that. What did busting a handful of chumps do? Got a handful of chumps off the water that's about it. What if everyone on the river got busted? A couple of hundred chumps off the the water, countless chumps are willing to replace them the next day. I'm afraid a more fundemental change is needed. How about eliminating raft rentals? Eliminating all rentals? It's private enterprise that profits from these people maybe it's private enterprises problem. I'm not too sure of a lot of things in this world but I'm pretty sure throwing a few people in jail isn't helping. You'd have to throw everyone in jail and close down the rentals.

[jdmidwest]

I think that most over react to the party on the river. I spent the last two weekends on the Spring River in Ark., one with the better half, the other with the 17 yo daughter.

If you plan your float right, most of the party goes in front of you and you never get involved in it. Both times we put in around noon, kicked back on gravel bars on every other hole and visited, fished and had a good time. Only one hiccup, a drunken bunch partying on the bank at the Bayou Access, not floating. 2 500 lb guys, one in a black thong and the other in a speedo. I think it damaged me more than it did my daughter.

Float any river on a Sunday and you won't have a problem. Put in after noon on a Sat, same thing.

[Greasy B]

Yea, that's the point. If your seeing the kind of behavior previously described what the hell are you doing there. Sure I'm upset that the river morons have stolen my ability to enjoy certain streams for three months a year but I'm no less upset that high powered recreational boat traffic has stolen my ability to enjoy mainstem rivers for three months a year. For what is worth I spent the last three weekends on two very popular rivers and seen no such behavior, most of the time I seen no one at all.

[jdmidwest]

What if you were that guy that liked to fish that private little cove on the lake that held alot of fish, then one day, it became "Party Cove". Same difference. Its public. When in public, you have to deal with public.

Or you could buy land, create your own stream, and do with it what you wish.

I don't go out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night because I know everyone else is going to be there, service will suck, food will be poor, and I will have to wait for a table.

[Al Agnew]

Well, sure, if you're able to go anytime you wish and anywhere you wish, you can always avoid the river dorks...most of them, anyway. But what if you can't? What if Saturdays are your family's only day off? What if you have to rent from the canoe rental people, who won't put in except at designated times? Not everybody is as fortunate as you and me.

The thing is, if these people were acting like this in any other public place where people gather, they'd be arrested in short order. What the heck makes the rivers different?

And I don't buy it that more law enforcement wouldn't do any long term good. Do some saturation law enforcement on the popular stretches for a few weekends, and word would get around. It might move them to another stream, but I suspect that it would discourage a lot of them from going at all. If you feel like you were just as likely to be arrested on the river as you would be in the city park, you'd find someplace more private to do your partying.

I don't give a darn where you are or when you are there, your rights to act obnoxious, stupid, and dangerous stop when your behavior adversely affects others who have just as much right to be there as you do.

[jdmidwest]

I used a canoe rental service and determined my point of departure time at my leisure along with a few other folks. I did it on a Saturday in the peak of summertime float.

My point is to use your head and avoid the nonesense instead of moaning about it.

[MOPanfisher]

If they are operating a motor vessel and they are intoxicated or impaired then arrest them, ticket them and prosecute them. I have seen too many accidents and injuries to say anything else. If they are floaters on a river and do something illegal, whether it be drugs, littering, indecent exposure or whatever, ticket them and send them on their way maybe after an 8 hour sobering up stay at the local crossbar motel. Enforcement does indeed make a difference it takes a little while but it does work.

[Justin Spencer]

Someone is going to be first down the river. If you want to avoid the partiers go on the earliest available shuttle or go early if you start at your campground, paddle for the first 45 minutes and you most likely can float at your leisure the rest of the day with very few interruptions. If you see a big party group coming, hop in and paddle for another 30 minutes. The good thing about partiers is they tend to stop alot and not paddle so it's not too hard to stay ahead of them. Not sure about other rivers, but the NFoW doesn't have that many accesses so it is easy to predict the river traffic.

[Feathers and Fins]

Someone is going to be first down the river. If you want to avoid the partiers go on the earliest available shuttle or go early if you start at your campground, paddle for the first 45 minutes and you most likely can float at your leisure the rest of the day with very few interruptions. If you see a big party group coming, hop in and paddle for another 30 minutes. The good thing about partiers is they tend to stop alot and not paddle so it's not too hard to stay ahead of them. Not sure about other rivers, but the NFoW doesn't have that many accesses so it is easy to predict the river traffic.

Why should people who by your scenerio are first on the river to avoid the partier be forced to move to avoid them? If those partiers are breaking laws they need to be arrested, if enough get busted the word gets out and they go elsewhere or on private property or home.