On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:48:40 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:07:47 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

The various flavors of local marine police routinely ask for ID. Don't
know what happens if you don't have any.

Where was that?

NY, Long Island Sound in my hot rod inflatable days... :-)

LIS is getting ridiculous in and around the Race area. Last year, I
was stopped twice by DEM (RI), DEP (CT) and DEC (NY) checking on
striper length and fish totals. I've heard that this year was the
same - on some days you could be stopped twice by the same fisheries
enforcement types.

Freakin' ridiculous.

Absolutely, and it is happening all over. The marine police in
Stamford, CT have at least 3 or 4 boats, the latest being a 30
something high powered catamarran, just what they need for zooming up
and down the harbor. Where do they get the money for this stuff, and
who is justifying the expense? The marine police in Suffolk County,
LI are running at least a couple of Bertram 33s with 454s, talk about
fuel expense.

We need to find a way of attacking at the budget level. That is the
oxygen flow for excessive policing.

When the money comes from DEA and DHS with no restrictions to the
public safety types, they spend it on anything they want.

For instance, the local dive team just bought a new RIB with 75 horse
outboard and trailer with tow vehicle ( F-450 Crew Cab) and a 18
bottle cascade air system with super duper compressor. The last SAR
we did was over ten years ago and the last mutual aid call was five
years ago and that was just to standby while the SP took the search
over.

At least the cascade system can be used by the fire departments.

Which brings up another sore point. We have three fire departments in
town. With all these DHS grants to upgrade, we now have more rolling
fire equipment than New York City.