Run in with Charleston County Police

[Tropic Cat]

Originally Posted by bella

Hag.. if you hate this country so much leave please..

Bella, wait a minute, you're going too far. No one is attacking the Coast Guard , we revere them. You've misunderstood or I have, as this post is slightly confusing. You seem to start in one direction and end in another.

It's the laws they are enforcing which might be questioned at times, but in rereading this thread no one minds a Coast Guard boarding. They are polite and professional. It's the locals that have become an irritation. This is understandably upsetting folks.

You reference the USA Patriot Act.... Might I ask if when, in our history, have Americans let any law stand which infringed on our Constitutional Rights?

Let me answer that. We never have and we never will. Americans will draw the line. It's a bad law and Congress was bushwacked with it.

If all of us write Washington, perhaps some good will come out of this thread.

[Chief Engineer]

Port Covington?

That explains everything.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Port Covington?

That explains everything.

care to elaborate?

[starfish62]

There's another bill in senate right now in Florida that seeks to limit anchorage to 3 days throughout the State. Get this--the guy who influenced the Senator from Sarasota to introduce the bill is the guy who has the contract to put in the mooring fields!! Only in Florida!! Such corruption really makes a citizen feel like they're in a third-world country.

Mods: Would it be possible to start a thread or section dealing with legal aspects of cruising--a little radicalism with representatives contact numbers & such? I think that our way of life is in need of defense.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Tropic Cat

Bella, wait a minute, you're going too far. No one is attacking the Coast Guard , we revere them. You've misunderstood or I have, as this post is slightly confusing. You seem to start in one direction and end in another.

read the post.. 'coast gaurd emperor'... its pretty obvious she hates the coast gaurd..this is not a fascist country..

It's the laws they are enforcing which might be questioned at times, but in rereading this thread no one minds a Coast Guard boarding. They are polite and professional. It's the locals that have become an irritation. This is understandably upsetting folks.

this was not a local boarding it was Homeland Security and Customs.. locals got invovled after the fact to bring the drug dogs in..
As much as it irritates me when they go over the top.. lots of local leo's
got lots of money post 9/11. They have to justify getting that money.
Got the joy of a 1am boarding in Key West .. entire anchorage was boarded.. it would have been humorous if it were not 58 degrees and I was in nothing more than a tshirt.
As far as HS and Customs is concerned. I have noticed from the postings in various places it seems to be only certain areas wher they are over the top.

You reference the USA Patriot Act.... Might I ask if when, in our history, have Americans let any law stand which infringed on our Constitutional Rights?

First I took the time to research and actually call and find out what laws does Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol use to justify boarding boats in US Territorial Waters.. I spoke with a Border Patrol Attorney _in_ Washington DC.. She told me that they use
Federal Code title 19 and the USA Patriot Act..
Now to answer your question.. while i am not a major fan of the ACLU.. they have a website about it all..
Reform the Patriot Act | American Civil Liberties Union

Let me answer that. We never have and we never will. Americans will draw the line. It's a bad law and Congress was bushwacked with it.

On that we both agree as well as the Real ID act.. it will never be implemented because congress wrote in an opt out clause and as of the last time I looked 21 states had opted out.. that means the citizens of 21 states will not be allowed to get on planes or go to federal buildings without the real ID.. even that is a misnomer.. all I need is a passport to get on the plane and into a fed bldg..
Real Nightmare

If all of us write Washington, perhaps some good will come out of this thread.

write and call your senator.. the white house will blow you off.. Your Senator is in a position to do something.. write them let them know how you feel. We are lucky that the new Secretary of Homeland Security is from a state that rejected Real ID..

[bella]

Originally Posted by starfish62

There's another bill in senate right now in Florida that seeks to limit anchorage to 3 days throughout the State. Get this--the guy who influenced the Senator from Sarasota to introduce the bill is the guy who has the contract to put in the mooring fields!! Only in Florida!! Such corruption really makes a citizen feel like they're in a third-world country.

Mods: Would it be possible to start a thread or section dealing with legal aspects of cruising--a little radicalism with representatives contact numbers & such? I think that our way of life is in need of defense.

I wil be happy to start the thread.. title to be florida anchoring..

[Patient]

Hmm, very interesting and yet at the same time alarming at the same time. Aqua I am truly sorry to hear of the ordeal you have gone through. More so the manner in which you were treated which speaks loudly of a "Guilty until proven innocent" method of conducting searches.

However, if you think about it, here is the problem. You have a branched inlet such as the ICW that spans 1,000 miles into the US. (Correct me if I am wrong about that) If you are concerned about that in terms of National Security, how exactly do you "Conduct" inspecections without basically throwing out the entire concept of Habius Corpus?

A little known fact about the recent terror attack in Mumbai was that the attackers actually hijacked a fishing boat, killed the captain, then traversed the coast silently until they reached Mumbai, then used dignys to quietly enter the city. In doing so they effectively evaded every potential risk of being caugh, spotted or pulled over if they had used normal means of transportation. A scary thought when you consider what someone in a boat could do in this country.

I think that Homeland Security has the right idea by thinking "Out of the Box", but obviously a very (And I mean "Very") poorly implemented manner of acting on that precaution. It sounds like you either comply to their request Willingly, or you comply Unwillingly, there is little choice in the matter, which in my opinion is a very sad reality.

[orion1]

"Never give up freedom for security, never"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lostmt]

Aqua,
Sorry to hear of your encounter. I feel that if you had given them a hard time you would have lost your boat and been in jail. All they had to do was plant one seed and all would have been lost. By the time it was over you would be a major drug dealer. One of them would be owning your boat.

[DavidGC]

Originally Posted by Patient

,snip>If you are concerned about that in terms of National Security, how exactly do you "Conduct" inspecections without basically throwing out the entire concept of Habius Corpus? ,snip>

You don't.

You ere on the side of personal liberty, and accept that sometimes the bad guys benefit, too.

The entire U.S. system of law was based on this simple fact.

DGC

[DavidGC]

While multiple law enforcement agencies figure out ways to guarantee their continued funding by doing asinine stunts like the one that started this thread, we have not increased our safety or stopped the flow of drugs by one iota. Want proof?

I live about 35 miles from the Canadian border. The border is crossed by a lake. The lake is mostly undeveloped, with pockets of homes/cabins here and there, but lots of woods and rural areas. The bottom five miles of this narrow, north/south lake is in U.S., with the rest of it going 20 or so miles up into Canada. Canada has an unmanned dock on the border with a telephone. You're supposed to stop and check in as you cross. Coming back, you are supposed to go to the extreme south end of the lake and check in with U.S. customs (there's a pretty good sized town there). This is usually also a phone-in situation, since there is typically no one there.

Crossing back and forth is no problem. On a typical summer Saturday there are hundreds of boats crossing back and forth -- from 30 foot sailboats and powerboats to 12 foot aluminum fishing boats and jet skis. Anyone can go up into Canada, pick up whatever or whoever they like from anywhere along the shoreline and merrily come back into the U.S; drugs, illegal aliens, weapons, terrorists, anything. The state boat ramp is about a mile north of the (mostly unmanned) dock where you're supposed to go to check in when coming back into the U.S. Do you think anyone does that? Of course not. Every time I take my 21-foot, cuddy cabin boat out at that ramp (and I often do it after dark), I laugh at the dog and pony show we put up with at airports an on the water in more developed areas in the name of "security."

The U.S./Canada border is the longest unprotected border in the world. I bet there are thousands of places like this along the border.

DGC

[Pblais]

It seems like all things this thread has lived out as much as can be expected. If you have any updates Aquaholic I suggest we start a new thread with the idea we won't be digging up all this old dirt again.

US / Canada border realtions are perhaps interesting but boating related nor part of this context either. The thread has been lost at the border so is now closed.

[twisty]

I forwarded the thread to a friend in the sheriffs dept here in NC for his thoughts, and he inturn forwarded it to another and so on and it eventually ended up guess where? Charleston County Sheriffs Dept.

This was the response that was recieved...

"I find this hard to believe but anything is possible. If this incident happened the way the citizen says it did then he/she should file a complaint with the Sheriff's Office. There is no longer a county police so I can only assume that they are talking about the Sheriff's Office. We do not condone any unprofessional behavior by our deputies and if this did occur then we need to know about it as soon as possible.
Major *********
Charleston County Sheriff's Office
Public Information Officer"

Thanking the officer for his response I also got this response...
"
Your welcome and if there is anything we can do here at the Sheriff's Office to help in educating the public about the Sheriff's Office Port Security initiatives please let me know......."

Aquah0lic, I have the contact information if you would like it, I, for obvious reasons, removed it here.

Mods - feel free to close this to new posts, I just wanted to make sure Community here and Aquah0lic got to see the response from the Charleston County Sheriffs Dept.