On Mar 7, 5:02?am, "Keith" wrote:
Yea, that's him. The paper spun the article like he's some sort of
hero collecting taxes from nee'r do wells.


The facts as outlined in the article don't justify any sort of outrage
at all.

The guy wrote a walloping total of 255 tickets last year, less than
one per day.



Note the part about his issuing warning tickets to totally legal
boaters? Now why the hell does he do that?


No, there was no portion of the story that said this cop was issuing
warning tickets to totally legal boaters. Here's the factor that may
have escaped your notice: In the state of Florida, all boats on the
waters are required to carry some sort of state registration. That
registration can be from any state. If a boater lives in a state where
registration is not required or is considered optional and arrives in
Florida without a valid state registration on his boat he or she is in
violation of Florida state law. How the hell does that make them
"totally legal"? Yes, they are totally legal in their own state but
they're not totally legal in Florida. If you go to another state or
country, it's customary to obey any local laws that may be different
than the laws in the state or country you came from. In Florida, state
law reuires all vessels to be registered in *some* state.

The warning tickets were issued to people who lived in states where
registration was not required or was optional. According to the
newspaper, boaters who received warning tickets could continue boating
in Florida for another two weeks- so the issue of a vacation being
terminated by a lack of
proper out-of-state registration is almost moot.



How would you like to be
issued a warning ticket for NOT speeding? He absolutely is rude and
harrasing, pulling over boaters that are totally legal and registered
in their own home state, still issuing warning tickets.


Not so, according to the newspaper account. Warning tickets are not
issued to boaters who are in compliance with the law by having their
boat registered in their home state. Warning tickets are issued to
boater who are, (or who claim to be) from out of state and have no
state registration for their boat.

Enjoying the privilege of using the public waterways for private
recreation means that we have agreed to be boarded for safety checks
and to make sure that our papers are in order.

My boat is documented, and has no state title. Even so, my state
requires that I pay an annual tab fee (several hundred bucks) and post
a sticker in my pilothouse window or on the hull. We are often
inspected pretty closely by water patrolmen in varioius communities,
and more than once have been asked to show our registration papers
that correspond with the sticker in the pilothouse window.


Best thing as
we have told the mayor and CofC there, is to just avoid the Venice
area completely and spend your cruising $$ elsewhere.

If you want to stir up a lot of outrage, at least get your facts
straight.
How dumb do you suppose everybody is? After a newspaper account that
dubunks a lot of your accusations is posted here you then say "See,
everything I claimed is right there in the newspaper article!"

The cop sounds like he's got some issues with his policing style. Who
the heck carries a duffle bag filled with law books? But he's not
ticketing people who are "totally legal". State laws differ. If I'm
allowed to have medical marijuana in California, I wouldn't expect to
get away with it in FLA. :-)
Don't like the Florida state law that requires boats to be registered
in some state or another? Then don't take your boat there- or if you
live in Florida ask your state legislature to change it.