I wrote this as a letter to the post and courier, which may or may not be printed, and I had to alter it quite a bit in an effort to make it more printable. The reality is DNR brought in Douche Bag officers from the upstate who justified the expense of being at Rockville by handing out a quota of BUI. You did not have to be drunk to get a BUI, and no one would be or was stupid enough to blow in their BAT wagon at cherry point, thus incriminating themselves. DNR had a meeting earlier in the week where they formulated an attack plan and blocked all the exits out of Rockville. If you were idling out of Bohicket creek at 6:00 on Saturday you were a target, and assumed drunk and likely to be placed on the DNR boat and taken into custody. As far as violations during the event, 30 people on a 20ft boat should be grounds for a warning at least. The DNR shadowed the event, marked their targets and moved in when the crowds dispersed.</font id=“size4”></font id=“red”> I’ve been going to Rockville for 20 years and I’ve seen plenty of people that deserved BUI’s, the difference this year was you didn’t have to be drunk to get one, all you had to do was leave the Regatta at 6:00pm.
That sounds like a good strategy to me.
And edited to add, since this is a “Fishing Discussion,” sounds like the DNR used the right bait and got their limit.
If you haven’t been drinking and driving (anything) you don’t have to worry about it. Get everyone home safe is rule #1, period. I’m not sure why the DNR’s bust drunk idiots leaving the regatta after boozing all day plan is such an issue. If you know you’re good blow; if you know you’re not - refuse to blow, but don’t ***** about the repercussions. Robert, if it’s someone you’re close to that gets killed over a BUI would you have the same opinion?
sounds like the perfect dui,bui checkpoint to me. is that not what the cops on the street do also. they pick an area suspect of a high rate of drunk drivers such as any road directly passing or adjacent to a bar or club and set up a check point or start pulling suspected vehicles. nothing to worry about unless youve been drinkin!! even on a boat motor running or not you can not get a bui unless you are drinkig. they have the right and responsiblity to check the drivers of boats with alcohol on board. even if that means puttin you on another boat the make you blow before letting you go “without a ticket”. i can promise you regardless of who you saw getting pulled fom their boat not a sigle person was givin a “bui” unless the blew over the limit.
havin booze on your boat gives them the legal right to check you and make you blow just like in a car.
are you a guilty one whining?How in the hell could they interact amongst all the rafting.What do you expect law enforcement to do?Observe a large group of partiers drinking in the sun all day,then tell them to have a nice 45min ICW ride home,or a 5min ride to a truck w/ trailer.Give me a f>cking break.You let a boat load of drunk punks run over someone,and people would be screaming that DNR didn’t do their job blah,blah,blah…
Damnit Bolbie, I have to agree with you!!! You're friend from "LINTVILLE"
Hey, don’t talk about our “upstate” dnr officers like that. I know a bunch of them and they are great guys. Stay clean and you won’t need to complain about them doing their jobs. By the way, any chance they were right about the bui accusations?
“The good fisherman is surprised when he doesn’t catch fish: I am just the other way around.”
Gene Hill, Passing a Good Time.
“The meeting” happened before the Beaufort Water Festival as well. I spoke with a few attendees and understand some of the locals are not fond of the tactics of which you speak. (Remember the upstate officers are local somewhere with local relationships) The objective in the Beaufort meeting was to pull every boat for a safety check and keep the BAT wagon occupied. Anyone that had had anything to drink even if they did not look impaired were asked to do a monkey test “just to scare the $^!# out of them”. Others that looked impaired were arrested and sent to the BAT wagon. (I heard of a few that blew under limit after arrest…they still spent the evening in the clink) After July 4th at Morris and Water Fest in BFT, common sense would suggest this would have happened at Rockville.
Just so it is clear, I support DNR and the research they do for wildlife around our state. Most are great people and are willing to give a how to or suggest a good fishing spot when asked or even show you a good spot to bow hunt on public land.
The lesson learned is to avoid the event or stay completely sober. Many BFT locals now spend the Water Fest weekend contributing to the Charleston economy to avoid the overall chaos. Please feel free to reciprocate and contribute to our economy during next years Regatta.
I was at Rockville as well, and while I understand all of your points, the original poster is not totally wrong in his assessment. I left a little before 6 and drove within speaking distance of three dnr boats, none looked my way. I got a call later from a friend that said right after we left it was crazy the number of boats getting pulled over.
Now I am sure that many needed to be pulled, and many needed to get a BUI, however throughout the day there were many, I mean many violations that should have warranted a visit from the on water popo. One such example were the two pontoon boats that had over 40 people per boat. These boats had the toons 2 inches above the waterline, and 20 DNR officers watched them pull up and said nothing. I didn’t see 1 DNR officer say anything to or stop anyone from 10:30 to 5:30, but after that the word is that everyone got stopped. If that is the case, that is not the way to keep everyone “Safe” that is filling their quotas.
If you gotta write 150 tickets a year, Rockville is a way to get 30-40 of the docket in one day. No skin off my back, but it really isn’t the way to build support for LEO.
I heard a guy with a cleft pallete who doesn’t drink, got arrested and went to the pokey. WTF?
You definitely gotta time your departure correctly in these situations. I for one will not be attending this or 4th of July without a sober captain and big boat.
I don’t disagree with you. I have seen this for the last 3 years. My point is that an agenda was set and adhered to. The situation was easy to foresee. Someone not wishing to get in this mess could easily have avoided it.
I think what we are taking issue with here is “agenda”. The “rule of thumb” that we are used to appear to have changed with these party events.
same old misplaced priorities by the modern day police state. but that’s why we didn’t go – just hung out with the crack heads and murderers; no one messes with them. thanks for saving my life popo
Rebel Yell,DNR doesn’t have anything to do with crack heads and murderers…They enforce boating and wildlife laws…AND THAT’S WHAT THEY WERE DOING! If your legal, you don’t have anything to worry about. I guess you need to play with Laverne and Shirley a little more…
A person who operates a vessel is considered to have given consent (“implied consent”) to a chemical test or analysis of his or her breath, blood, or urine.
In college a few years ago, I wrote a term paper in my poli-sci class on the supposed non-applicability of the search and seizure law to state and federal waters. It mainly dealt with Coast Guard drug interdiction, but did include a section on bui’s, and I interviewed a few lawyers. While I’m certainly no expert by any means, I have done some research. It’s very easy nowadays to pull all this info from the internet. And btw, I’ve never been charged with bui, and certainly don’t have an axe to grind or personal bias against dnr.
I don’t think anyone can reasonably take the position that he/she has a God-given right to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both, and I don’t think anyone is trying to here. As members of the boating public, we can’t and won’t allow that to go on. When you speak about these random roundups though, it’s easy to say “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” Don’t assume that everyone who is charged with BUI (or any crime) is automatically guilty. Just because an officer says he thinks you broke the law doesn’t make it true.
The problem that I see is if dnr higher-ups are encouraging (or ordering)officers to make x# of bui arrests, they are forcing the officers to make cases they probably would not otherwise because they are under the gun to show results. It is a dangerous policy to base your success on arrests rather than convictions- the former is easy to control, the latter is based on the legitimacy of the original arrest, and it appears that they are using their questionable exception to the search laws to accomplish their objectives. If you are one of the unlucky who run the gauntlet leaving an event and get pulled over, you’re screwed. It is legal to have beer on a boat. It is legal to drink that beer on a boat. It is legal to then drive that boat, so long as your faculties are not materially and appreciably impaired to the extent that you can not safely operate that boat. If you get stopped for no reason (under
i love how your screen name is loophole and you just posted a shorten version of your thesis on cf.com about BUIs and getting arrested. i don’t know it made me laugh a little.
From reds to marlin you got it.
2001 210 Sea Fox
2009 Yamaha F150
So… they waited till the end of the day.
Everyone there knew the laws
Most did not heed them
But YES, they do apply to you too!
There ARE consequences for your actions.
This generation just don’t get it.(for the most part)
smokey- name calling is not allowed on this site. I’m just a guy with a little bit of knowledge, which they say is a dangerous thing. and a poli-sci degree that doesn’t do much in the real world.
itch- you’re right. my hands still hurt from all that typing. never again, i promise
