The Rat has a Gripe.

Rat, i remember, back in the day, the marine police stopping by and eating a pack of crackers or a BBQ sandwich with us. we never had any problems. seems like we always had a great time on the beach and we treated it with respect. always cleaned up after each other and did the right thing. why would they be targeting "sandy" now? what's changed?

What has changed? We have a new Officer in town. One I think is trying to make a name for himself. A few rumors are floating around about the island is going to be cleaned up. I personally don't think this can be done. This meeting place has been going on for 25 years I know of myself and many over there has told me they have been stopping by for longer than that. The last Marine officer that just retied went above and beyond his call. If he seen or heard of bad weather coming he would come by the island and warn us of it over his radio. He would stop by and talk and have a snack. Not this one. All he wants to do is write tickets. The econemy is bad right now. People get out on the weekends to have a little fun. And now we have this to contend with.

maybe someone will tell the "newbie" that sandy is a national landmark. hahahaha! people have been hanging out there for over 30 years. see if you guys can find the retired officer. maybe he can help. just a suggestion. other than that, i suggest a call to the marine police office and ask what the heck is going on. what do you think would work?

Is Sandy Beach on Seven Mile Island?

No Tomfan it is on the East end of Seven Mile Island. There is a cut through that divides the two.

Sounds to me that if the river patrolman is able to write a citation for every boat he pulls over, there are a lot of violations and violators. The easiest way to avoid a citation is to understand the law and abide by it. Makes it safer for everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by CrustyMac:
Sounds to me that if the river patrolman is able to write a citation for every boat he pulls over, there are a lot of violations and violators. The easiest way to avoid a citation is to understand the law and abide by it. Makes it safer for everyone.

So I guess you are a life long resident that's never had a ticket? If you have then I am sure after the officer told you what you did, you knew better beings that you understand the law. I am sure you acknowledged that what you did wrong was against the law. Not everyone deserves a ticket that gets stopped. I knew there would be one on here that would try to turn this around and pin a medal on this civil servant. Maybe kin folk. Who knows. Either way the things he is doing concerns me to the point that it raises the issue with me about why he resigined/was fired from his previous job. And it's not about writing a citation on every boat he pulls over. Read the story. It's about targeting one area. Stopping boats in this one section of the river. No way he can patrol the entire river and stop this many boats in a 4 hour period. Do you think it's just a fluke that every boat on the river that is breaking the law just happens to be in front of this beach? Boggles the mind.

Hey the river patrol is going to be where the people are and a good one is going to be where the party is. Why would he patrol empty stretches of beach?

They go for the easy pickings.

Without doubt there are a lot of bozos on the water and wherever the marine patrol can enforce the rules, I am for it. I have never seen so much hot-dogging and willful violation of boating rules as in this area. If he is finding safety violations on watercraft, he needs to write citations. Otherwise, too many rednecks will just keep on being red-necks on the water. Some of these high-powered bass boats are operated by scofflaw cowboys who have no respect for others. These are known in Georgia as "bass holes."

scofflaw cowboys!! I love it!!! That's an awesome phrase.

i don't think the rat sounds like the kind who would make trouble on the water and from what i've heard, it's not just a bunch of trashy folks who go to sandy beach.

we all know that sometimes areas are targeted, sometimes unfairly. i'm not sure what's going on here, but i'm willing to allow that perhaps the folks who go to this area didn't do something so awful to warrant all this attention.

the rat seems like a reasonable fellow... there could be more at work here than meets the eye.

you gotta use some other word than 'cowboy', betern, if you want to make them sound unattractive.

quote:

Some of these high-powered bass boats are operated by scofflaw cowboys who have no respect for others. These are known in Georgia as "bass holes."

So I guess yoa are known in Georgia as a "Pompous Bass."

i think the Rat has been cruising the river in excess of 10 years. i may be wrong but i don't think so! hahahaha! Sandy Beach is more like a cookout on saturday afternoon at the house. hahahaha! not much of a problem there. i bet it's the same folks as the old days. it really reminds me of a M&G type gathering. now how bad can that be? hahahaha!

You are right Bumble. I have been on the river for quite a few years. Been going to the beach for just as many. And let me put this out there for all to know. I have never had a citation on the water. I have my vessel license. My boat is legal. I have knowledge of the laws. As a matter of fact I haven't even been stopped and checked in as many as 10 years. The targeted boats are not the Bass boats with the 200 Mercs. They are the pleasure boats. The $60,000 Donzi's. The $22,000 Baja's. The young crowd. I witnessed myself this man pass a boat mid river and turn around and stop it. Evidently River laws are different than Land laws. I guess you can stop who you want on the river for no reason and search for something to write a ticket for. Anyone who get's stopped for any reason if the officer wants to write you a ticket, he will find something. No one is 100% legal.

There is no need to constantly harrass folks for sitting or walking around in the water enjoying talking with friends. everyone is cooking out, kids are playing in the water. its all in having a little "cool" fun. Guess you could say its like "one big happy family".

I agree with the Rat, patrol should come over and have a burger with us. He just might be surprised that we can be nice.

quote:

Originally posted by RiverRat:

quote:

Originally posted by CrustyMac:
Sounds to me that if the river patrolman is able to write a citation for every boat he pulls over, there are a lot of violations and violators. The easiest way to avoid a citation is to understand the law and abide by it. Makes it safer for everyone.

So I guess you are a life long resident that's never had a ticket? If you have then I am sure after the officer told you what you did, you knew better beings that you understand the law. I am sure you acknowledged that what you did wrong was against the law. Not everyone deserves a ticket that gets stopped. I knew there would be one on here that would try to turn this around and pin a medal on this civil servant. Maybe kin folk. Who knows. Either way the things he is doing concerns me to the point that it raises the issue with me about why he resigined/was fired from his previous job. And it's not about writing a citation on every boat he pulls over. Read the story. It's about targeting one area. Stopping boats in this one section of the river. No way he can patrol the entire river and stop this many boats in a 4 hour period. Do you think it's just a fluke that every boat on the river that is breaking the law just happens to be in front of this beach? Boggles the mind.

Not a life-long resident of the Shoals, but a long-time boater. I've never had a boating citation - wish I could say the same about my driving. Every ticket I have had was deserved, and I manned up, paid the fine, and didn't whine.

I guess I'm unclear as to what you are saying. Are you saying the officer is writing tickets for things that are not violations? That would be a problem.

You state that there is a rumor going around that the area is going to be cleaned up. Does it need cleaning up? If it does, what is the problem with the officer doing his job and trying to clean the place up?

I am not related to the officer in question, don't even know his name, have never met him. Heck, I don't even know that it is a him and not a her.

This officer might just be saving your life.

No Crustymac, the island does not need “cleaned up”. The rumor is that he will run everyone off from there. As mentioned before, would it not make more sense to have everyone contained in one area rather than having them scattered up and down the river ? These folks have been coming here and gathering for many years, no harm at all. Why not leave them alone or even try to get along with them?

No boating violations here either 

If folks are breaking the law and putting others in danger, then by all means, give them a ticket. But stop being a jack to others.

Okay, so I still don't have a clear picture.

There are 50 boats tied up, and people on the beach, just having a little fun. - Sounds like fun to me, by the way.

Officer snot-nose is giving these people citations? For what?

well Crusty, let me see if I can explain a little better.


You see, all these boats gather at the beach to socialize and have a little fun. We walk in the water, go from boat to boat talking/meeting/greeting everyone. May even get a little volleyball game going or some Frisbee. Then we have to fire up the ole grills, man the smells coming across that beach at times will make anyones mouth water.

THEN as you look across the river, who do you see? Superman? Wonder Dog? Nooo, its Super Patrol himself, sitting looking through his binoculars at all of us. What is really bothering a lot is the reason he was terminated from his last job, now here he is peeping through that little glass at our daughters/the wives as they are walking around in those cute little bikinis. Nearly every fancy pleasure boat that leaves there, he stops. Some get tickets, some don’t. its just plain harassment! We will share our chicken, steak, shrimp, burgers, hotdogs: he just needs to relax a bit. Does that make sense to you now?

Ok Crusty. Let me see if I can help you understand this. Maybe I should have went into a little better detail. It's hard to describe this situation with just words. And for the record, My account got mixed with the new upgrade so I am the same RiverRat as before. No one has Hijacked my name. The Marine officer is not coming over to where the boats are sitting at the beach. He is heavy patroling up and down this beach. Boats that come from Little bear creek and are heading to the beach are being stopped. One's coming out of spring creek heading to the river are being stopped. Boats that leave the island are being stopped. All this is done right out in front so everyone can see. He is using his power to detour people from coming to this island. It's almost a given if you come to the island your going to be stopped. For no reason. I have seen boats leave this island and let me remind you the water is extreamly shallow for atleast a 100 yeards from the beach and the boat's putt out so they wont hit bottom and just as soon as they get plained off here comes the blue lights. The rumor that he is going to clean up the island has got me wondering is he is trying to stop people from coming over and meeting on the weekends. Believe me. If this patrol thought he could pull up on the island and find illeagle activity going on he would have already done it. So he choose's to wait till we leave and use his authority to stop the boat and find some sort of infraction. Let me ask a question. Reguardless if you were legal or illeagle, dont you think it would get on your nerves if you knew you were going to be stopped and checked when you hit the water? It's like driving. I believe 80% of the people that drive are always checking the rearview mirrow for the cops. Even if they havent done anything wrong. I would say that 80% of the people that are stopped that the first thing going through their mind is I am going to jail. The public dont like it. If this is such a bad place go do a search in the paper. Look back 30 years and find me an article where ANYTHING has ever happened on Sandy Beach. Also known as Buck Island. I don't believe you will find anything. This officer is wanting to be known as the one that Cleaned up the Beach. I have news. It ain't going to happen.

I believe in supporting LEOs as a rule, but this sounds like harassment to me.

I also support them as well. However a LEO doing their job and one who is forcing his authority on us is different. If these boats were breaking the law I understand him stopping them. I believe what he is looking for is a BUI. Or a DUI. But as far as I know he has not succeeded yet. He is quick to pull out his breath meter. I really think this is his favorite toy and when he cant write a drunk driving ticket he looks further into the stop. I wonder how much longer this sort of activity will continue. This is and has been documented every weekend with time stamps.

Rat, imma come see you guys in the next couple of weeks. i miss seeing all the people that used to hang out. i ran into an old friend during the handy festival who wants me to go with them one time this year. i was seriously considering the offer. now, i feel sure i'll be there soon. hahahaha!

i might putt out there with a flatbottom and trolling motor to check it out again.

i haven't been since i was a kid.

Now I have a clear picture, thanks. It sounds like it is time for everyone to pick up the phone and call in a complaint.

thats right crustymac, calls have been made.

quote:

Originally posted by James Holden:
i might putt out there with a flatbottom and trolling motor to check it out again.

i haven't been since i was a kid.

come on over, the more the merrier