Sunday, May 30, 2016

My right as a free American to pursue happiness on public land
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I want to say to Col. Bat Guano of the Fish and Wildlife Department, who searched my car after I answered honestly his question whether the car contained marijuana even for personal use; who then wrote me a warning, entered the incident in some Federal database connected to license lookups, and confiscated about a gram (he reported it as 3-4 grams over the radio) of pot he found right where I told him he would:

Dude, instead of thinking so much about drugs and weapons and violence, why couldn't we talk about the wildlife, the quail who called out from a nearby grove while you were so concerned about "doing my job"? Did you even hear the birds, are you blind to the mountains around us? Why couldn't we relax and discuss geology and wildlife; could you answer my questions, as a Department of Fish and Wildlife employee, about why there was a grove and green grass in this patch of desert? Was there a tank here for cattle, was it man-made, was there a pre-existing charco, when's the last time it had surface water?

In fact I started to ask these questions, but, intent on his search for drugs, he said he didn't know that area at all.

Dude you create more and worse problems in your zeal to enforce the letter of the law. You should not use "doing my job" as an excuse not to ask about drugs.

If I were like Trump, I'd have said "None of your business" and used bluster and charm to make you back down, I bet. Instead I was cited and stripped of weed, because I was honest.

Something is wrong.

Legalize drugs, take away your authority to cite me, Mr. "A Ficus".

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He returned my pipe but remarked as he was leaving that paraphernalia was illegal, so I should "leave it at home."

What if I have no other home? I just use the apartment for the occasional shower, laundry, tv pit stop.

I feel more afraid of law enforcement than of illegal migrants.