Two Tennessee courts have now found that game wardens cannot conduct searches on private properties without having a warrant. This comes after two Benton County landowners sued the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) for ignoring their private property signs.
The Institute for Justice took on the lawsuit after landowners Terry Rainwaters and Hunter Hollingsworth had TWRA agents install cameras on their properties.
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Good, I'm glad.
I despise game wardens. Don't get me wrong, I understand conservationism and why it's there, and I have never broken a fish & game law in my life, but I have never had a good or positive encounter with a game warden. In every single contact I've ever had with one, I've been treated like John Fucking Dillinger with their 'I can do whatever I want and what in the fuck are you going to do about it' attitudes.
Game Wardens, AKA "Fish Cops" are people that couldn't qualify to be a police officer or deputy sheriff, and take it out on everyone they meet.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteHe finally retired, but in my area there was a game warden named Richard Head. Even his parents hated him. The name is all the evidence I need.
DeleteAnon, I knew a Richard and his last name was Cox.
DeleteIf I had a large acreage and some Game Warden showed up on my property to inform me he could do whatever he wanted, my biggest decision is whether or not to fully warm up the engine on the excavator.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have only ever had one bad encounter with a Game Warden - and his coworkers all agreed he would likely never get back-up if he called out in trouble.
I read a story about this a few weeks ago. Apparently, there's some 'small print' on the hunting license application (that nobody ever reads) that authorizes the warden to come onto your property.
ReplyDeleteNot people I have to deal with being in a different country
ReplyDeleteThey are the kids that had their asses kicked on the way to school every morning. Now they have the power.
ReplyDeleteI went to high skool with a little asshole like that. He became a second-generation game warden and his asshole father was just as bad as he was. Their buffoonery was epic. In a tourist area, they would go out of their way to persecute tourists, is how smart they were. Got their asses whupped by locals several times, but funny thing, no witnesses ever saw a thing.
DeleteAnd if you really want to keep them off of your land, except when you escort them, install a 5 foot fence made out of oil well drill pipes. A friend erected such a fence in 1982 and probably won't rust for another 100 years.
ReplyDeleteI quit fishing years ago when the Georgia fishing regulations booklet got up to about a half inch thick. Bought the license still for a few years as they do spend that money pretty well for a government. Now I just look at the rods in the garage and wonder why I keep them.
ReplyDeleteIt’s the same in Louisiana. The regulations are often contradictory and set up to entrap otherwise law abiding citizens. Big revenue generator.
DeleteAnd the sportsman is also subject to whatever new regulations or closures have been posted on various websites.
DeleteThink about that.
You go to their stupid classes. You get their stupid license. You pour through their stupid book of regulations, laws, suggestions and other information. You got the tags on your vehicle. You got your gun set up using the ammo they allow you to use. You are wearing all the life vests and orange that you have to. And then, because you left the house at 4am after checking their websites, you are still subject to any further bullshit they toss up on said website at 8am.
Back when I was really broke it would have cost me over $300 in licenses and fees and 'safety equipment and other bullscat to just have the attempt at a successful fishing or hunting trip. So the very people who need to hunt and fish are not allowed to hunt and fish because they're poor. And that's not adding in the gas and other
Alabama has royally overcomplicated the turkey and deer hunting regulations in the state of Alabama. One needs to be an attorney to decipher the current "rules and bag limits" and it would help if the hunter had good phone/computer skills to use the WMA and game-check reporting system. The DNC has broken the state into "zones". Each zone has different opening/closing dates, regulations (i.e. "no decoys allowed the first ten days of season", etc.). I was turkey hunting this spring for three days on USFS lands when a buddy asked where I was hunting and I told him. He about had a coronary and told me I could not be hunting on public lands as the season did not open until April 8th. I told him the "rulebook" stated it opened in our county on April 1st. That is when the opener had been all my life (April 1st-30th). He informed me to go the top of that page and read the fine print. If the game warden had of "checked" me, I would have been hunting out of season. Every hunter I encounter feels the same way. The same goals/outcomes could be achieved by much simpler/streamlined regulations, but such is the nature of government bureaurcies. By the way, we have had some peckerhead wardens in the past, but the one we currently have is a good guy. I haven't heard of any overreaches/abuses/jackbootery. We have had and have some U.S. National Forest "law enforecement" that is pretty gung-ho.
DeleteMostly not happy about encountering these guys. Where I live now, even the state police come through once or twice a year like they were moving from FOB to FOB in Iraq. Three vehicles minimum moving as quickly as possible on these old roads. I’m okay with that. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteY'all have completely different opinions of Wardens than I do. In my experience of being associated with a large cattle ranch for over 40 years I've had great luck in dealing with some really quality people. Most of them know that good ranchers are their friends, and for the most part are a resource to be used to help catch the bad guys, some of whom are neighboring ne'er-do-well ranchers that think they're above the law. Such as the clown next to our place who thinks he's a big-time guide and allows 'his clients' to hunt on our property. And of course, he has no license or permit that would qualify him as a legal guide.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Warden man, now retired, is a volunteer lobbyist for the California Rifle and Pistol Association, helping to fight many of the ridiculous laws being shoved down our throats here. He's a great guy and it's mighty good to have him as a friend.
Nearly a life time ago, my grandparents were so poor they could barely keep body and soul together. Grandpa would occasionally poached a deer out of season to keep the family alive. The neighbors poached deer out of season because they were @$$holes. Anyway, the game warden busted the neighbor who immediately ratted out grandpa. The warden assured the neighbor that grandpa was his next stop.
ReplyDeleteThe warden would walk up the path and when he got to the gate, he would take off his badge and put it in his pocket. He then went through the gate and helped grandpa clean the deer. He'd sometimes stay for supper, always pausing at the gate as he left to put his badge back on.
The game warden's son ended up marrying the oldest daughter. Nearly a life time ago, not all wardens were power drunk bastards.
In Minnesota in the 70's, if law enforcement didn't have probable cause for a search warrant, they knew just the right game-warden to call to check your freezer for a "fish count". When he noticed "marijuana paraphernalia " on your coffee table, then they got their search warrant. The judges caught-on quick and mostly put a stop to it.
ReplyDeleteJudges aren’t like that anymore
DeleteMy only encounter with a game warden was in the Florida keys in the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteThis guy was actually convinced that I had caught, killed, and hidden a lobster somewhere offshore, and was waiting for him to leave before going back out there to retrieve it.
It took me almost a half hour to convince him that this was not true.
Sheesh.
GW's are the scum of the scum. There's nothing lower. They're only out there looking to charge people with something to collect money. As a teenager my brothers and dad returned to the parking lot on state game lands. There were two officers there and they waited until we put all our guns in the vehicle. Then they came over and wanted to check and see if they're were loaded. If they were so concerned with safety they should of come over BEFORE we put our guns in the vehicle and asked us to make sure our guns were unloaded.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago a friend was out hunting Dove with his other buddies. The got to a field and were waiting for the opening of the season. As it was just about to open GW's sprung on them and said someone baited the field they were hunting. The GW's threatened to confiscate their guns, vehicles, and everything on them unless someone confessed. All for hunting flying rats! I could go on but I'd have to write a book.
I told a game warden who pulled up on me while duck hunting that if he was going to write me up for shooting a duck after dark he should stick his thumb up the dead duck's ass to have evidence that the temperature of the duck was low enough to understand the duck had been dead for a couple of hours. My uncle nearly sh!t himself when I was looking the warden in the eye, challenging him to "thumb's up". He still wrote me up for shooting after dark (BS).
ReplyDeleteAsshole wardens in the costal bend of TX use to insert thermos in the ducks butts trying to determine which duck was last shot hoping to ticket you when we still had the crappy male/female and species point system. We'd just submerge the ducks in the cold water until we left to equalize the body temp.
DeleteIf they were really "law enforcement" they should have known better about requiring a warrant. The fact that they didn't or chose to ignore it just proves what unprofessional a33hats that they are.
ReplyDeleteFarrrgin' bastiges, as Roman Moronie would say.
ReplyDeleteIf they'd reimburse me for all the hay bales the damn deer destroy, I wouldn't mind so much that they think they own them. Even though the whole idea of "the king's deer" grates on me...
Game/fish has shit on themselves here in colo and riding for the rump ranger governors brand on the wolf reintro here by not being above board with the ranchers. Shitweasels.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in and fished and hunted in three western states and have had nothing but great experiences with game wardens.
ReplyDeleteThe one I currently deal with goes out of his way to make sure that people who are tight for money and need meat receive game that are confiscated from those who have broken the law. I personally know that he has let people who had shot a spike bull elk, it had to have forks, but self reported the violation keep their hunting license. He took the carcass and had the guy donate to the elk foundation and wished him luck on his hunt. Oddly enough he can’t always find someone willing and able to gut, skin, and butcher a large animal on a moments notice. I actually took that elk and have processed others and gifted the meat to others.
I live in Northern New Mexico just below the Colorado border and we visibly watch people hit elk on the highway on a regular basis. The warden has a road kill list for people who want to harvest a road kill deer or elk. Most times the elk have to be put down by the warden so you know the meat will be good
To steal a line from the movie Jeremiah Johnson, I can’t understand them people down eating hog when they could be up here eating elk.