Brian,
Nope that wasn’t me, but I sent it again. It’ll be a dorky looking guy in a red jacket wearing sunglasses and holding his biggest walleye to date.
Shane

I sent in a picture last night. How long does it usually take for it to get put in? No hurry just curious

I delivered for Dominos in college, back when they had to do it in 30 minutes or less. The drunks definetly tipped decently. I delivered once to a huge mansion of a house, obviously well to do people. The lady gave me a .50 cent tip and asked if I was going to school. When I told her I was she told me to use the tip towards my education-Thanks! 4 Hours later in the not so nice part of town I deliver a $9.00 pizza to a couple of guys who had been out on the town and they hand me a $20 and tell me to keep the change. Guess that’s why the lady was rich, she was holding on to it.

Also got an undeserved ticket for “rolling” through a stop sign. Cop said he was giving me a ticket because of all the complaints they had about the Domino’s drivers. Sad part was that I was only filling in for a few hours at a store in a different city, so it wasn’t me. Oh well.

Hey Brian K, Make that 12. I wasn’t going to post on this because I am a fence sitter on this issue. I really don’t believe it would affect how I do my job one way or the other. Like it or not I just assume people are armed with some sort of weapon at all times. Keeps me vigilant and aware of whats going on around me. If any thing I am probably for the law for several reasons.

I work in a large rural county and early on in my career I was sent to a burglary in progress “out in the sticks”. I met the caller at the end of his neighbors driveway and while talking to him I could hear the bad guys walking down the drive way towards us. 5 of them in all several of which had taken firearms from the residence during the burglary. It was 3:30 in the morning and the next nearest officer was about 30 minutes away. I threw my keys for the squad to the complainant told him where the M-16 was and asked him if he wanted to be a deputy. Unfortunately when he returned I could see that the magazine well was empty, but I asked him loudly engough for our bad guys to hear me “do you know how to use that?” His response- he racked the slide and yelled back ” it’s on Rock and Roll.” Gladly the would-be bulgars complied with my commands and we stayed behind cover until my back up arrived. Sure wish he would have loaded the gun. He mentioned that he almost grabbed his Govn’t Model before meeting me. I would have had no complaints if he had.

Secondly, I’m a firearms instructor for our department. I very seldom carry a firearm when I’m not working even though I know I should be. I remember watching the videos of the beheaded Iraqi hostages. The first thing that came to my mind was “sheep” and then I will never be a victim. They may get me, but I’m taking as many of them with me as I can. That’s a personal thing and I’m sure many of you out there feel the same. The other firearms instructor for our department and I have talked about putting on the required classes if and when the law does pass. It would be important to me to know that people are being trained correctly and are aware of the consequences for taking on the responsibility of carring a weapon.

I do have one beef about this whole issue though, its with Mr. Zien. It seems like his only purpose in State Government any more is the CC law. Not budget issues, health care, schools systems, property taxes etc. I would hate to see him sell out other important issues when it is likely that it will eventually happen any way.

Shane

AMWatson,

You hit it on the head. You don’t respect the man behind the badge if he doesn’t deserve it. It’s the Laws that actually are to be respected and adhered to. IF the man(or woman) enforcing them is deserving of respect, then show it. Just like in the military, you salute the rank, not the man.

I train many young and new officers and the best piece of advise I can give to them on how to treat people is treat everybody the same way that they would want their mother, sister, father, spouse, etc to be treated.

I’ll leave this alone now. And Ted if you do an article, keep it in perspective. The Wisconsin DNR as a Department does not encourage oppressiveness and overbearing behavior. Actually, in the last few years the department has really tried to turn around its public image to the point that a lot of Warden field time is now used for public relations.

Shane

Slop,

Your up rather early.

It’s only human nature to feel the way you do, we all do it. I just hope that if Ted does an article he points out that there are many thousands of positive LE contacts through out the state every year and that only a small percentage of one percent result in abuse.

In a perfect world there wouldn’t be any abuses of authority by LE officers (or in any profession), but since were all human, that just isn’t going to happen.
Shane

Slop,

Being in Law Enforcement myself, it’s quite common to see the attitude you have. The comment “having been harrassed myself by CO’s before, I woulnd’trust their actions for a minute ” is pretty telling on how you feel about all CO’s. Not knowing the circumstances behind the harrassment you received I won’t question what you say. But to group all CO’s and their actions based on one individuals actions is a bit reactionary, don’t you think. I have noticed in the past that you are one to jump in very quickly on the behalf of all bass fisherman when someone has a bad experience with an individual bass boat/fisherman. I agree that the group as a whole should not be jugded by the actions of a few. That is one of the reasons I really have a problem with the article Ted is proposing. The media really has a way of sensationalizing the actions of a few. In one article all the good things that are done by CO’s will be wiped out. What people will remember all CO’s by is the actions of a few over zealous officers. Instead of nuturing a cooperative environment between citizens and law enforcement, it creates an Us vs. Them attitude from both sides.

No matter what profession you look at, you can find examples of abuse. Those cases are really easy to remember. The problem is that instead of high lighting the individuals who did wrong, a blanket is thrown over the entire group. Did the CO in the case Ted is refering to do wrong? Maybe, maybe not, I don’t have the facts from EACH Individual. Even if he did, that doesn’t mean they all can’t be trusted.

Shane

Hey Nut are you going to give us a fishing report? How many fishing poles did you go there with and how many did you leave with? I could have sworn you put 4 poles in the boat at the landing, but I’m sure you only had three when we got off of the water.

No it’s not as bad as they say- IT’S WORSE. My family has it every year for XMAS and every year I try to choke some down just to make sure the previous years batch just wasn’t cooked right. It’s always just as bad

Class of ’86
Osseo-Fairchild HS, Osseo WI

What are their chances of any of them catching a limit on Little Wissota? I’m on Wissota about 10 to 15 times a year but I do most of my fishing up the Chippewa for Walleye and Smallmouths. I don’t recall ever fishing Little Wissota except through the ice.

Are there enough bass on Little Wissota for 12 fisherman today and 6 tomorrow?
STG113

This storm produced 3 or 4 funnels in northern Clark County and Marathon Co. Tuesday June 7th. I had just put the camera back in the house and I saw a funnel above the tree line. Went in to tell my wife to get in the basement and came out with the camera and it had gone back up. Just north of me it produced the other funnels and one tornado. It’s been a stormy June for central and west central WI

I was out on Wissota on Sunday. Seen a bunch of them out practice fishing. We put in at the view and at about 7:00 PM we pulled into the view to take the boat out. I walked right by Van Dam. He was pulling out. He wasn’t there long. I’m not sure I have ever seen a boat get taken out of the water that quickly. Any way I plan on bringing the boat out on Saturday. I have some friends that have permanent sights at Mallard Resort and they said I could use Mallard’s landing. I’ll be in a 2004 black and white Starcraft Cstar with 115 Opti. I’m hoping to be able to beach the boat somewhere near the View to see the final weigh-in.
STG113

ecnook,

If you don’t mind me asking what prop did you end up with on your Opti. I have a new 115 Opti and I’m still looking at props other than the Alum. that came with the boat and motor.

STG113

Blue Fleck,
That’s the one I was looking for. Thanks a bunch, already added to my favorites.
STG113

Hope you got it figured out. Just this week I rigged up my new boat with a 24v 65lb Maxxum. I have a pretty good Idea of how electricty works so I knew that I had to hook up the two batteries in series. I decided to get lazy and use the jumper in the marinco plug instead of shorting the wires and jumping the neg of batt 2 to the positive of batt 1. I mounted the trolling motor at about 7:30 PM(1 hr) and wired the plug in (.5 hr) and plugged it in. Turned on the momentary switch and nothing! What the **ll. I fiddeld with it till 11:00 PM and nothing. Decided I would start fresh the next morning.
9:00 AM the next morning start over. Nothing. I rewired the plug in eliminating the jumper in the plug in and shortened up all the wire leads and put in a short jumper wire between the two batteries, still nothing! What is going on here. At noon I decide it must be the Auto Reset 50 amp circuit breaker. The Minnkota manual says to use a 50 amp manual reset breaker. Decide to drive to marshfield to Krafts to buy a 50 amp Manual breaker. They don’t have any and the parts guy isn’t sure what they use on the boats they rig (really said that) but he thinks he can order me one. No thanks I can order it cheaper from bass pro. I went to the local Napa dealer, they don’t carry them. So I decide I will just go to fleet farm, buy a multimeter and check out what my voltages are.

I get home about 1:30 PM. I decide for the sake of my sanity I will take off the circuit breaker and just test out the motor with out one to make sure it’s not the new motor. I test the circuit, 25 volts were good to go there. Plug it in and push the momentary switch, you guessed it – NOTHING. Now I’m just a little PISSED. The brand new motor doesn’t work. Angrily I start towards the plug in and I must have accidently bumped the speed dial. It went up passed the 10 percent speed and the prop starts spinning away. I HAD BEEN CHECKING THE MOTOR EACH TIME UNDER 10 PERCENT AND THE MOTOR WON’T START UNTIL IT GETS TO THE 10 PERCENT LEVEL. 6 HOURS I FIDDLE F—– WITH THE WIRING AND I ACTUALLY HAD IT DONE AFTER THE FIRST TWO.
Sorry to get long winded and hijack your post, but I know your frustration. Hopefully yours is something as simple as mine was
STG113

Okay, we’ve only been married three months. I think she’s still training me.
STG113

I was wondering why she gave me the go ahead to get any trolling motor and locators I wanted. Come to think of it two weeks ago on the way to Hurley she even encouraged me to stop at the St. Croix rod factory and buy poles.

What can I do now, or is already too late!
STG113

My wife isn’t at that point yet, but I hope to have her out fishing me soon. That’s the least I can do since she “Made” me by a new boat this year. At one point I had decided against it and she “convinced me” that we needed it. Am I ever glad I didn’t let this one get away.

stg113

Kooty,
I hope your not a part of the “anal minority” who believes in the preservation of individual rights. If so than count me in that minority too. Individual rights are paramount in our free society and need to be preserved. A limited “pat down” search for weapons, even when legal is an invasion of privacy, just not as intrusive as a search after an arrest. I guess my main point was the courts have said there are circumstances when an officer would be justified in that invasion of privacy for “safety’s sake” and I was trying to shed a little light on the legal justifications for it.
Shane

It definately won’t be me.
It’s really not easy to explain. It took me a number of years to get a real good grasp of it and most people won’t ever have to experience it.

Jerimiah,

Probable cause and reasonable suspicion are close, but not the same.
Think of it this way. You see two people on a corner known for drug dealing in a high crime area. You see them reach out to each other as if exchanging something, but can’t see what it is. One of the people is a known drug dealer. The circumstances surrounding this would make a person suspect that a drug deal had just gone down, but because you don’t know what if anything was passed you can’t say for sure. This circumstance could prompt a temporary “stop” of the people for a brief period of time to talk to them about their activities. For examples sake, they are just old friends exchanging handshakes the contact must end, the suspicions were dispelled. On the other hand one of them produces drugs, a reasonable person would say they that it was “more than probalbe” that a crime of drug distribution just took place.

Hunch- simple suspicion, 6th sense so to speak. Not enough to justify anything more than further observation.

Reasonable suspicion is more than a mere suspicion, there are articuitable facts that can be stated that would lead a person to believe a crime may have been committed. It may warrant stopping someone to speak to them. If the officer then can articulate other circumstances that would make a reasonable person to believe the person to be armed, he may pat down the outer garments for purposes only to see if the person is armed.

Probalbe cause means the facts presented would lead a person to believe that it is more than probable that a crime was committed. If that is the case an arrest may occur and a full custodial search could be conducted including the area immediately under control of the arrested person.

The highest level of course is beyond a reasonable doubt, which is needed to convict anyone of a crime.

Last point I’ll make, I didn’t mean to get into a Legal debate. Yes, I carry pocket knives too. They have many uses, but they are still a weapon. When all is said and done, I always try to explain to people why I am searching them. I’m not asking you to agree with it, but the main purpose for all searches of a person is for the safety of all. In the case of a probable cause arrest, evidence would be a secondary consideration. And again, just because someone is hunting doesn’t mean there is legal justification to pat someone down. You are more likely to have a weapon though, that’s the only point I was making with that comment.
Shane

Gary,

To answer your question simply, no, officers can’t go around frisking anyone they want. What I was describing was the legal justification for a pat down search. A pat down search is nothing more than “frisk” of the outer garments for weapons. Also I didn’t say a suspicion. I said a reasonable suspicion, meaning if you(a reasonable person, not reasonable officer) were presented with the same facts known to the officer at the time, you would also suspect that person to be armed. Even in states where concealed carry is permitted, the officers may require you to surrender your weapon for the duration of the contact for the safety of all involved. It’s a safety issue, not a necessarily criminal one.

An officer cannot arbitrarily walk up to someone and pat them down. A simple social contact would not warrant progressing to a pat down search, unless further circumstances justify an officer to “detain” a person.

In a land mark Supreme Court case Terry V. Ohio, the courts said that an officer can temporarily detain a person if they have a reasonable/articutable suspiscion(there’s that term again) that a person has committed, is committing or is about to committ a crime. The courts have said that the person can only detain that person long enough to confirm or dispell those suspicions. The courts also said that if during that time the officer has reasonable/articuitable suspicions that the person is armed he may pat search(frisk) that person for weapons. Basically if an officer has the authority to temporarlily detain a person and then has a reasonable suspicion that the person is armed, he can then pat search that person. That’s not Wisconsin Law, thats a US Supreme Court Decision, making it the law of the land.

Part of the problem hear is that hunting and fishing is a privledge not a right, we have to have a license or permit to participate in those activities. If we are taking part in those activities we may be stopped and asked to provide those permits. Conserv. officers actually have no broader limits than any other officers in how they can conduct their stops and searches. The amendments to the constitution apply to us all. I want the same protections from an intrusive government as anyone else. Remember though, Conserv. Officers are enforcing laws that deal with hunting and fishing. Hunters and Fisherman are more likely than anyone else to have a weapon on them. That pocket knife or fillet knife is a weapon as well as a tool. Don’t take that as meaning that anyone hunting or fishing is subject to a pat search either, but it does add to the totallity of the circumstances that may lead to a pat search. In my opinion any LE officer whether he/she is a Cons. Warden or police officer who is pat searching everyone they contact is violating these legal principles. Personally, in this day and age of civil lawsuits and political correctness, I don’t think it would be possible.

Hopefully I didn’t confuse you.

Shane

I didn’t read all the replies to this post so I’m not sure if it was already stated, so if I am just repeating what someone else has already posted, I’ll apologize now.

I am a SGT. with a Wisconsin Sheriff’s Dept and I want people to understand what we do and why.

First a pat down search can be done if an officer has reasonalbe suspiscion that a person is armed. Reasonable suspiscion in a nut shell means that a reasonable person under the circumstances the officer is in, knowing what the officer knows would also believe the person to be armed. It’s sometimes called articuitable suspiscion, meaning the circumstances can be articulated or written down. Things like nervous behavior, a visible bulge or lump in clothing, time of day, location of the pat search (such as high crime areas)number of people, past experience with the searched subject(knowledge of subject being armed), etc can all be used to justify a pat search. The totality of the circumstances are looked at as well. Just one of them would probably not justify a pat search. A mere hunch would also not meet the critera. But a pat down search does not need probable cause. An arrest requires probable cause, and then the search is a full search of the person and his belongings immediately under his control.
Also if an officer has reasonable suspiscion that a person is armed he may use the force necessary to implement the pat down search. Even if a court later determines that a pat down search by an officer was not justified, you are not justified in resisting the officer and if you committ a crime by resisting, you will be prosecuted. Remember, if a person is unlawfully searched there are two ways to remedy it. First the evidence obtained in an illegal search would be tossed out. Second, an officer can be civilly sued for violating someones fourth amendment right against unlawfull seaches and seizures.

Lastly, if an officer doesn’t have reasonable suspiscion or probable cause, he can still ask for consent. You can refuse a request for consent.

Sorry it’s so long winded, just want people to know the facts.

Brunswick purchased Princecraft from OMC after OMC went belly up in 2001. Try and find a 2003 or 2004 Princecraft with any motor but a Mercury. Prior to that, you didn’t see them with anything but an Evinrude or Johnson. You will be able to put any motor you want on them, it’s just going to cost you more for a motor other than the one owned by the parent company (in this case, Brunswick).
STG113