That's right, some retired judge here in Aspen has ordered a hunter who illegally baited and killed a bear to pay $500 to PETA in lieu of community service time. The article can be read here: http://aspentimes.com/article/20071017/NEWS/71016039. I've already sent a letter to the editor via their web site, and you should too. There is also a place for comments with the article. Let this town know what you think of this crap.

Remember when those PETA employees killed and disposed of those dogs and cat that they were telling the owner adopting out? By that logic they should have had to pay restitution to SCI.

Scares me when someone has a financial interest in someone else being convicted of a crime. Bad enough with laywers, but a political/special intrest organization?

Personally, I'd have told the judge no thanks and done the community service instead if was me. But then if it was me, I wouldn't have been in front of the judge in the first place since a bear skin isn't worth my hunting rights.

I'm glad the guy got pinched, but do not agree with the judge ordering the poacher to send money to what is sometimes classified as a domestic terrorist organization. But this was in Aspen and that whole area has been taken over by Hollywood types.

Mac

Fuck peta. Period.

What 577nitro said X 2.

How can a judge order someone to support PETA?

Actually, the hunter is kind of lucky.

Because a donation to an anti-hunting group would be against the specific interests of the hunter, his attorney will be able to force the court (through appeal) to allow the donation to go to another pro-hunting group.

Judges do this stuff all the time with pet causes. The courts have consistently ruled that you can't force a contribution of funds to a group that works in opposition to your job, religion, political affiliation, etc.

Garrett

Poaching - automatic loss of firearm, no hunting for three years and a fine/community service. Simple

On the judge's example - should AlGore have to cut a check to the coal industry every time he passes wind??

ya know, if the judge did not state in what kind of time line, the man had to pay anything to PETA....

I'd do exactly like I have done in the past, when I get told I have to pay some sort of fine to the county or any governmental agency....

It has been quite a while, but when I lived in Minnesota, I was given a ticket for "attempting to run a stop sign" by a cop at night, when I came up to the stop sign and the road had a sheet of ice on it, .. I was going slow, and the front end of my car skidded on the ice there about 3 to 4 feet beyond the stop sign...
( Barney Fife wrote the ticket, and then slipped on his ass on the ice, that he claimed that wasn't there... )

So I go to court, and the damn county attorney blows off my explanation, and asks the judge I be fined and labeled guilty....

So the judge tells me that he will not put it on my driving record, but that he was going to fine me $45.00...

I responded it was BS, and what was my alternative... which he responded, to have the ticket put on my driving record.. and the fine doubled....So I took the less of two evils....
But I wasn't done protesting this crap....

I go out to the clerk and ask can the fine be paid in Cash? and she answered yes....

So I walked straight across the street to the bank, and asked them for $45.00 in PENNIES!
They told me that they couldn't do that at first.. and then asked what it was for...

I told them that I had been sent over by the court house.. to which their attitude changed to " oh, no problem!!"...

They even gave me a big sack to put them in, and told me that the court house could return it when ever they wanted to...

So I broke them all out of the rolls they were in.. and went back into the court house to the clerk to pay my fine...

So I put the bag up on the counter, and the clerk asked what is that, and I told her it was the money to pay my fine...

She said she wasn't going to accept it.. I told her to sign my ticket stating she refused to accept the funds when I tried to pay it.. she refused to do that, and went and got the head bozo...

he comes out and gives me a bunch of crap..
So I tell him, that I was told that they accept cash.. he said yes to that...
Good, I responded, this is American currency...
He refused to accept it...

People in line were laughing their asses off...

so when he refused to accept it, I told him to sign the ticket stating his refusal to accept payment.. he wouldn't do it....

So I turned to those in line and asked for someone to witness that I had tried to pay the fine and they refused to take American currency to do so.. 10 people stepped right up...

The head clerk said "okay", but you are going to have to stand here, and wait as we count the entire amount...

to which my response was, that's okay, I had to take the entire afternoon off to come here....

and 4 more people stepped up and said they weren't going anywhere either, and they would love to stand and watch the clerks count 4500 pennies...

They didn't count them, they just gave me a receipt... the county clerk told me I was an asshole.. my response was, good.. does that mean I can get a job here then???

Ya know, somehow that took all the frustration out of having to pay the county the fine, for slipping on ice, that they didn't have cleaned off the road...

I pay any governmental fines in pennies ever since.. or stretch it out over the longest time I can....they screw with us, so it is fun to make their lives just as miserable!

Seafire,
that clerk nor those people in line behind you should have been forced to be the brunt of your anger.
what did it hurt the cop or the judge?
there are plenty of ways to get back at cops.
i know i was one.
in alot of small town cops will write a number on the back corner or at the top of the ticket. thats a date for the clerk NOT to schedule the court date if you elect to take a trial.
It's thier day off.
when you find this date ALWAYS ask for a trial and ALWAYS request this date.
chances are he's gonna NOT show and the ticket will be dropped or he will have to come in on his day off and wait around, in uniform for you to walk up and say "i have decided to plead guilty".
nothing gets a cop more pissed off than that.
theres a few really good ways to get back at a judge, esspecially a summary court judge. most are morally wrong and some are illigal so i wont reveal them.

seafire,

Kinda makes a fellow want to go run a stop sign!

Lee

quote:

that clerk nor those people in line behind you should have been forced to be the brunt of your anger.

Well the Clerk was part of the County, so it goes with the job where you get paid to not exert yourself too much for 20 years and then you retire...

The people in line didn't mind.. in fact they thought it was pretty entertaining....

If courts, cops and the government would stop making "public safety" a revenue generating racket... maybe the public would be more empathetic to them...

quote:

If courts, cops and the government would stop making "public safety" a revenue generating racket... maybe the public would be more empathetic to them...

in the 70's when it was figured out that small kids could get really messed up in standard seatbelts they came out with car seats and passed laws requiring them.
the fine for not using a car seat was , in comparison to the economy of the time, outrageously high.
The fines were in place to change peoples behavior and get the kids into car seats.
last year SC passes a seatbelt law and set the fine at $25.
That small amount actually was set to discourage people from using seatbelts, not to make them use seatbelts. the amount is so small that #1 your not going to take off work to take a jury trial, #2 your not going to alter your behavior and start wearing a seatbelt,

In fact in the State of SC I can be pulled over with people sitting in lawn chairs in the back of my truck for not wearing my seatbelt by a cop on a motorcycle.
crazy logic?
revenue.

Where's the usual rage at the poacher being referrred to as a hunter??????.......even by a couple of the posters......

Joe

seafire2: That was funny