Posted on 04/02/2014 4:59:56 AM PDT by rellimpank
It would be a bad idea to do that to me. It's amazing how much information you can find on the Internet...
Just ask the Texas Railroad Commission dork who bypassed my locked gate on my posted, private property by driving across my front lawn on his way to inspect my oil well.
I was standing on my front porch checking on why our dog had alerted, when he drove across our lawn without stopping to check with me. I would have unlocked the gate for him if he had asked...
Instead, he found his egress blocked by a very angry -- and heavily armed -- landowner, who proceeded to read him the riot act, and who protested his trespass (by name) directly to the Railroad Commissioner.
I expect that Texas game wardens are smarter than that. At least, they know the trespass laws...
This particular incident occurred before the advent of the web, but I did a “small town” number on the SOB: wrote a letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper (which was duly published) and named him - after describing the incident and his intrusive, fascist behavior. Word got around quite quickly. The incident itself unfolded like this: Six or seven of us were sitting on camp chairs around the morning fire. To reach us, one would have to open a heavy, iron farm gate and then drive back a mile on a dirt road through timber and a big cornfield. This jackboot did just that, and pulled up to our site, got out of his kampfwagon and started questioning us as though we were criminals: What were we doing there, did we have permission to be there (the owner was seated beside me), did we have any firearms with us, etc. I asked him in a very cold, hostile tone if we needed the state’s permission to camp on our own ground, and then told him that if he wasn’t going to arrest us for camping on private property, to leave immediately. (My friend, the landowner, is far too passive, so I did all the talking.) Ranger Jerkwad and I exchanged a few more terse words, and he left. But he had his hand on his holstered pistol the entire time he was there, trespassing and harassing free born Americans enjoying a fire on their own land.
That's the way it worked in Texas when they changed the law in 1995. And most of the authority on this type of stuff resides with the commission, whether it is called the Game and Fish Commission or Parks and Wildlife Commission. The agency itself cam only make suggestions. Then it is how much influence does the commission have over the legislature. The commissioners are appointees. And in Texas it was large landowners who were serving on the commission who influenced the lege to change the laws.
An officer traveling down a county road could come upon a car pulled off the road next to the fence, and see hunters in the field but he had no authority to question these hunters as to whether they had permission to hunt and what proof that they had to indicate permission to hunt. The fact that the hunters accessed the land from the road and climbed over the fence made no difference.
The officer had to have a complaint of trespassing or poaching
Also at that time was whether the complaint came thru the agency or thru the sheriffs dept. Most county judges had little interest in fining people if the money went to the agency rather than the county.
And they raised the dollar amount of the fine and added in the possibility of having to serve time.
Through-out my life I had done a lot of quail hunting in the west Texas oil fields because there were a lot of privately owned, open lands. After oil was discovered, the landowners had little interest in these lands and they were used only by the oil industry. And many oil workers hunted these lands also. The landowners could have cared less if there were people hunting these lands. And there was a lot of cotton growers who didn't care either.
So in 1995 I quit hunting and a lot of other people quit hunting. I still recall those first few years after the law changed. It was not uncommon to read an article in the paper of some poor soul being fined 6 grand and having to serve 3 months in jail for poaching.
I am of the opinion that the law was changed over deer hunting, but it also affected small game hunters.
LOL!
You der Mensch!
Hey. The conservation officers are just following orders...
“I am of the opinion that the law was changed over deer hunting, but it also affected small game hunters.”
Could be. I’m a NBT (native born Texan) and have hunted since I was a boy here in Texas. And, I’ve never seen a game warden worry about entering private property to check licenses, tags, coolers, etc. being that there’s not much public land in Texas (goes back to the Republic - another story for another time) hunting is a significant source of revenue for ranchers and farmers. So, they are in favor of game wardens enforcing game rules and regulations as am I. Leases are pricey these days so I don’t appreciate poachers intruding on my lease or breaking game laws on nearby leases for that matter.
IMO, this is the way it is supposed to work.
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