Opening Day AKA I must Be Getting Old
Yesterday was opening day of muzzling loading season for deer. Usually I get up a couple hours before daylight and am on my stand and ready to hunt long before the first streaks of gray break across the horizon. Yesterday I didn't even make it into the woods till well after daylight. The clock went off at 4 AM and I jumped (well actually sort of fell ) out of bed. I went to the front door to check out the temperature, saw the frost on the ground, read 24.1 degrees on the thermometer, and crawled back in bed to argue with myself about the foolishness of getting up so early. After about 10 minutes the more sensible side had convinced my wilder side that it would be best to sleep another hour or so. The winning argument was that my favorite place to hunt (pictured above) would be so crowded that it would be hard to find a place to park and with so many idiots in the woods it would be safer to go in after daylight. You can imagine my surprise when I pulled up to find only one other vehicle. As a matter of fact the only other vehicle was a couple of game wardens as I was coming out around noon to shed some of my extra clothing. That was the first time in about 20 years that I had had my license checked. The really funny part of this story is that I saw 2 does driving in and 2 more driving out but not a single deer while in the woods. So, I'll try it again Monday. Maybe I can get in the woods before daylight this time.
posted by H. Stallard @ 8:09 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
It's not my cup of tea. I just like to ride them not work on 'em. Didn't get to go hunting today. Spent all day working on the hardwood floor in the TV room. Finally got it all down. Been doing the trim and hanging blinds on the door and windows. Got to do some touch-up painting and finish one section of quarter round. I'm going to try to hunt on High Knob tomorrow. Hope it's not foggy...I always get turned around in the fog. If you don't hear from me in a couple of days send out a rescue team.
Anytime you're on national forest they can stop you and talk to you and if you're packing then that's their pc to ask for your license. Also (and here's the big loop hole) if they "suspect" that you might be engaged in some kind of illegal activity they can search you and your vehicle without consent. All they have to do is be able to "articulate" their suspicions in court. In Virginia, game wardens have more powers than any police local, county, or state.
eleutheros said...
Any law officer can search a vehicle without the owner's permission, but they need a warrant, and to get that they need probable cause.
Yes, but if the officer happens to see something illegal in plain view in the vehicle or a drug dog hits on the vehicle he doesn't need your permission or a search warrent. He can't search your person until he has arrested you but he can pat you down (feeling through the clothing)for weapons.
However you would be surprised at the number of people who give permission to search when they have the right to say no. And most people don't know that they can limit a consensual search to exclude any areas of the vehicle they desire or stop it at anytime after it is begun as long as the officer has found nothing illegal. If he has, then it's not consensual any more.
And don't forget that the supreme court has said that a law enforcement officer can lie to you to get you to give a voluntary statement or permission to search. The only constraint is that it has to be voluntary.
Never is correct, and be damn sure anything incriminating is out of plain view, and don't fall for the line "If you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't object if I do a quick search then!" And if they threaten to bring in a drug dog, start timing them, they have to do it in a reasonable amount of time. How much depends on what the judge would say is reasonable but is usually from 20 to 40 minutes.
You pretty much have it covered.
A couple of points...we use the walk up to John Doe on the street and engage him in general conversation a lot because most people feel like they have to talk to the police when in reality they can turn around and walk away like you would anyone else on the street. What we're hoping for is that you in some way incriminate yourself and then it moves up a notch to the investigating a possible crime level where you have to talk to us.
The plain view thing doesn't work in a residence. If we go to a call say for domestic violence and see a bag of heroin then we have to go and obtain a search warrant. But on your person or in a vehicle we can do a warrantless search.
On the pat down if we feel what might be a bag of dope we can ask what it is hoping that you will rat yourself out.
Having you stay in your vehicle is a two fold thing. First and most on our mind it is a safety issue. You are in the vehicle in a limited space and have limited mobility whereas we can approach and stop just behind the driver where we can see if there is a weapon. The other thing is it lets us be in control of the situation.
On the drug dog, if you are stopped for a traffic violation we can run the dog around the outside of your vehicle without your permission but unless the dog hits or you give permission we can't go inside it. At a road check we cannot use the dog in the road to check every car but if you are asked to pull to the side for some reason then it's ok to run the dog around the outside of the vehicle.
I don't know how many tickets I've seen issued simply because the person argued with the officer. In Virginia simply touching a police officer can get you a mandatory 6 months in prison and a felony record.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-57
What do you do with the deer after you've shot one? Do you haul it away and eat it later?
Bibs are for sissies and A1 sauce kills the best flavor of the meat, just a little salt and pepper if you please. The heart and liver are eaten raw on the spot [as in Dances With Wolves] but the rest is taken home, skinned, quartered, butchered and made into jerkey except for the tenderloin which is lightly floured and fried to a golden brown in bacon grease.
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