Drug Busts On CA

[jtram]

O boy......

[fishinwrench]

It is an absolute disgrace that families have to witness fights, cursing, alcohol abuse, nudity, drugs and stupidity in public, in our truly beautiful lakes and streams.

My family spends ALOT of time on these lakes/streams and we've seen very VERY little of anything that ever bothered us. So I guess I'm a little unclear on what it is that we need to be protected from so aggressively.

I'm on a lake every single day that is considered the most unruly body of water in the tri-state area. People have a few drinks, prolly smoke a little, and some of them are driving boats.... So what? The illusion being pounded into everyone's head that after a couple beers you completely loose the ability to get from point A to point B safely is a crock of crap.

If you can play Frisbee like a Champion, do triple flips off a diving board, kick butt in volley ball or shoot pool like a straight-up hustler (all after a few drinks) then you still have the ability to safely pilot a freakin' boat or drive a vehicle.

Breathalyzer tests are BS.

Brandon Ellingson had a few beers but he was not WASTED. Just 30 minutes before he was stopped the kid totally RULED the games at Coconuts. If being "3X over the legal limit" he can beat you at ANY game like that then he is still in better shape to drive than you are.

Officer Piercy couldn't have beaten that boy in a game of checkers, much less anything that requires motor skills, so I'm totally deaf to any talk about how drunk and full of cocaine he supposedly was or how he deserved to be pulled over and taken into custody.

[Gavin]

This has gone south. Let's pull the plug on this one and make nice.

[Chief Grey Bear]

My family spends ALOT of time on these lakes/streams and we've seen very VERY little of anything that ever bothered us. So I guess I'm a little unclear on what it is that we need to be protected from so aggressively.

I'm on a lake every single day that is considered the most unruly body of water in the tri-state area. People have a few drinks, prolly smoke a little, and some of them are driving boats.... So what? The illusion being pounded into everyone's head that after a couple beers you completely loose the ability to get from point A to point B safely is a crock of crap.

If you can play Frisbee like a Champion, do triple flips off a diving board, kick butt in volley ball or shoot pool like a straight-up hustler (all after a few drinks) then you still have the ability to safely pilot a freakin' boat or drive a vehicle.

Breathalyzer tests are BS.

Brandon Ellingson had a few beers but he was not WASTED. Just 30 minutes before he was stopped the kid totally RULED the games at Coconuts. If being "3X over the legal limit" he can beat you at ANY game like that then he is still in better shape to drive than you are.

Officer Piercy couldn't have beaten that boy in a game of checkers, much less anything that requires motor skills, so I'm totally deaf to any talk about how drunk and full of cocaine he supposedly was or how he deserved to be pulled over and taken into custody.

If he wasn't drunk, how'd he fallout of the boat?

[Chief Grey Bear]

From reports at the time, if I remember correctly, it was his mouth that helped put him in that situation.

I tend to loose sympathy for those that don't have courtesy or respect.

[Al Agnew]

You can always find an instance of something bad to support your views on police of any kind if you wish. It's not like people are getting drowned falling out of police watercraft all the time.

And while I agree with Wrench on breathalyzer tests up to a point, they are a way to take judgment calls out of it. The problem with them is that some people handle alcohol better than others. When I used to drink a couple of beers after playing basketball, and then driving home, I found that with two beers I was fine, but if a drank one more beer in the hour or so I was at the bar, I began to be a little tipsy, and knew my driving ability was beginning to be impaired. Meanwhile, a couple of the other guys would drink twice that and not be visibly impaired at all. I don't even know if those three beers would have put me over the legal limit, but two was definitely MY limit.

You WILL see instances of very bad behavior, fueled by alcohol and perhaps drugs, on any popular float stream on any summer Saturday, and often Fridays and Sundays as well. I for one am happy if the water patrol, conservation agents, or county police enforce some laws in such places. If they worked a little harder at it for a while, the behavior would lessen.

[Brian Jones]

Does 'enforcement action' include putting someone in a boat with their hands cuffed behind their back and not having enough common sense too see what could go wrong with that scenario? Oh, I forgot it was a simple lack of training....unbelievable lack of accountability!

If something did go wrong in that situation there'd be one less alcoholic, dope smoking, graffiti tagging, poaching litter bug to deal with. What's wrong with that???

[Brian Jones]

What I find funny, is the boat ramps in the rivers always attract the finest sorts. Just go to Riddle Bridge on the Gasconade any weekend this summer.

But I'm pretty mentally unstable when it comes to protecting my daughter and it has caused me to be a little paranoid of the whole dope thing....even pot. If some dude offered my daughter drugs I might have to go full ghetto on him.

Which, unfortunately, is EXACTLY why I carry. No law enforcement presence generally means no respect for the law.

[fishinwrench]

From reports at the time, if I remember correctly, it was his mouth that helped put him in that situation.

I tend to loose sympathy for those that don't have courtesy or respect.

Where is there a report that says he was mouthy with the Authority figure ?

Even Piercy stated that Brandon was "cooperative". But then again Piercy told so many lies that who knows.

After he put Ellingson into custody he let someone that was just as buzzed (or moreso) as Brandon was drive the boat home. Where's the intelligence in THAT?

On the way to "headquarters" Piercy hit some really rough water, GPS reports show the Donzi going from over 40mph to almost 0mph in a matter of seconds. Being handcuffed and standing he was thrown out. And 3 witnesses stated that Piercy lollygagged about retrieving him because quite frankly the dingaling didn't know what to do to get him back in the boat.

[rFisherk]

I have devoted my life to, and derived my livelihood from, the outdoors.

The more I have learned about the flora and fauna the more I respect it.

The more I have participated in the traditional endeavors of hunting and fishing the more I appreciate the natural world as the purest example of life and death on an honest plane, with no ulterior motives.

The more I have escaped and fled the hypocrisies, the ignominies and the noise of "civilization" the more I have developed a reverence for the natural world.

The longer I have sat quietly alone along an Ozark stream the closer I have felt to the ultimate force of the universe. Certain spots have become more hallowed than the grandest cathedral.

Yet the outdoors is becoming increasingly crowded with people who see it mostly, or only, as a place where they can party harder and totally disrespect their fellow men without the interference of law enforcement. That's why I posted this press release. That's why I applaud and encourage further efforts.

I no longer venture upon Ozark streams on weekends, especially the popular float streams, because the behavior I too often encounter saddens me in many ways.

I realize I am a relic of the past--a dwindling minority. I realize the vast majority are so far removed from the natural world that they can't begin to fathom the reverence I feel for it. And I realize I can't claim sole ownership to public lands.

But I do believe that at the very least, the same laws and societal norms enforced in the cities should be enforced on our sacred streams.