USCG to lose Judicial Powers to NTSB

[Hud3]

Cooper,

What are you talking about? You're not making any sense.

[Sunspot Baby]

Those aren't RIBS. I am pretty sure their orange area is solid. If they are not Protector boats , they are similar but using a solid rather than inflated rim. See Protector Boats .

George

[Canibul]

There is just basically something wrong with US civilians being able to be arrested by military troops. The Shore Patrol cannot pull you over on an interstate and arrest you. The MPs cannot give you a breathalyzer. Why should another military group, the USCG, have legal control over private citizens? Its just wrong. IF you have a US passport or other id as a citizen, they should not be able to touch you or your property.

Hey, David M. I went through an entire 40 year career working with the stuff you tow around. We must know some of the same people.

[cal40john]

Some of this class don't carry the 50 caliber guns, but the ones that bird-dog the ferries do.

YouTube - Armed and Ready

YouTube - Staton Ferry Gun Boats

YouTube - San Diego Coast Guard Target Practice

John

[Chief Engineer]

The USCG falls under Homeland Security......I don't believe they have any standing in the Pentagon

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Canibul

There is just basically something wrong with US civilians being able to be arrested by military troops.

In my opinion, being cited by the USCG for a boating infraction is no different than a federal fish & game officer arresting you for hunting in a national park without a permit.

[Quijote]

In my opinion, the Coast Guard we knew from the good old days (the ones that came out to rescue you) has become corrupted by first its drug interdiction duties, and later by its Homeland Security duties. New recruits are trained to parrot the words of Washington Lawyers (literally). We were boarded by a training crew and found that they had been hired from the inner city or the deep mountains and knew absolutely nothing about boats. So they did what they had been trained to do. The questions they asked revealed the profundity of their nautical ignorance - "is this a fiberglass boat". The idiot in charge forced me to attach a freon bottle to the foghorn (in the same package with it) to prove to himself that it was a functioning horn. I explained to him that, if I did that, the freon would slowly leak out and I would be left without the safety device that he was requiring. He didn't care - he made me prove that it worked! That boarding was a nightmare because there was no reasoning with those guys. When he wanted to go below, he asked if he could go down to the "mess deck".
Arghhhhhhh!

[David M]

Quijote,
Thats pretty funny. As much as I respect what they are doing, I have had some pretty funny situations revolving around their sometimes ignorance.

I used to run a different inspected vessel. This means that the Coasties inspect your vessel once per year. One inspector was down in the engine space and noticed some duct tape. Apparently the presence of duct tape is a red flag for them. He asked why I have duct tape? I had to explain to him that the duct tape is to hold the heater ducts together.

[Pblais]

The move follows an investigation by The Sun last year showing that mariners prevailed in only 14 of about 6,300 charges brought over eight years.

I would not take this as a sign you will be boarded less. In the past if you look at the number that means about 790 cases per year. That isn't that many compared to the number of boarding and these "violations are not basic inspection issues either.

Just because few were acquitted it also means darn few were accused. Under the NTSB there are about 500 more crimes you can be guilty of and a lot more people out there trying to prosecute them. I clearly would prefer we dismantle the Department of Homeland Insecurity as a concentration of far too much power. Those people are scary. Sedition may soon be an actual crime again.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Pblais

I would not take this as a sign you will be boarded less. In the past if you look at the number that means about 790 cases per year. That isn't that many compared to the number of boarding and these "violations are not basic inspection issues either.

Just because few were acquitted it also means darn few were accused. Under the NTSB there are about 500 more crimes you can be guilty of and a lot more people out there trying to prosecute them. I clearly would prefer we dismantle the Department of Homeland Insecurity as a concentration of far too much power. Those people are scary. Sedition may soon be an actual crime again.

I believe that the vast majority of the Coast Guard convictions relate to licensed mariners being convicted of one thing or another. I don't think that they relate much to yachties getting boarded. It has to be a pretty serious violation like a barge hitting a bridge or a grounding of a commercial vessel for the Coast Guard to convene a kangaroo court.

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by Hud3

In my opinion, being cited by the USCG for a boating infraction is no different than a federal fish & game officer arresting you for hunting in a national park without a permit.

Except that a.) I am not slinking through the bushes with a high-powered rifle b.) the ocean is not a national park, and c.) Federal fish and game officers don't pull a family in a Honda Civic over on the interstate highways just because they feel like looking through their trunk and luggage, checking their horn, brakes, and tire wear.

[cslascro]

CG is part of homeland security nowadays, and ever since that transitions there have been a number of changes (not the least of which is their commando attire). Perhaps having a DOT agency switch to military status is still something the boys in Washington are sorting out. Good to hear that people are making a fuss and setting things straight; keeping it all fair. Imagine how long it would take to work the kinks out of the marines becoming a domestic agency! I know that our Coasties here in Ponce Inlet have lost a lot of funding in the last decade, we used to have cutter stationed here, but no more. That kinda sucks when you're 40 miles out without a propshaft and then they say, "can you call Sea Tow instead? we don't have a vessel to send to you."

[David M]

It has never been the Coast Guards responsibility to be a towing service and it should not be their job. The Coast Guard only cares if life is in immediate danger. It is also not their job to protect your property such as pulling a vessel off the rocks. If you do need assistance and lives are not at immediate risk, then it is best to call a towing service or to flag down a fellow yachtie. The Coast Guard has the option to help you in non-emergency situations but not the obligation to help you. It is their policy to not take business away from commercial towing services.

[cooper]

Hud have a look at the post "coast watch usa" and you might understand the meaning of my aussie dialect !.