Fox-Cousteau
Senior Member
As far as I know RICO only allows that if you were part of an organized criminal dive team
Rico Ricardo?
He didn't dive! 
He played the bongos and sang "Babba Lou"
Orlando area springs
- Thread starter svs
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Rico Ricardo?
He didn't dive! He played the bongos and sang "Babba Lou"
SkimFisher
Contributor
The way look at it is like this: that the law can be manipulated and twisted (and just flat out forgot) on the scene in the hands of LEO's. Can they take your gear if they want to? Yes. Can they arrest you? Yes. Will it hold up once I get a lawyer and have my day in court? We shall see.
A perfect example of this is a few encounters I've had with the FWC over last few years. Some of these guys have their own interpretation of the law.
A perfect example of this is a few encounters I've had with the FWC over last few years. Some of these guys have their own interpretation of the law.
LiteHedded
Contributor
if you follow the rules you won't have a problem. I've dived blue springs dozens of times and never had an issue. and no one has been rude to me
SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
...and you piss them off and they decide its just a hellovalot easier to close off the site to diving all together.
Nice.
As a former school administrator who had to study school law, I can assure you that principals and superintendents across the nation violate laws on a regular basis. IN many and perhaps most cases, they do not realize they are violating the law. They get away with it because people who don't know the law either assume they do.
Here in Boulder we had an interesting example of this during the fall. For a number of years, there was an unusual tradition of a group of people putting pumpkins on their heads and running briefly through the streets, otherwise naked. Everyone knew it was coming, and people had a lot of laughs. This year the police decided to crack down, and they arrested the entire lot of them, charging them with multiple offenses, including a felony that would require them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their life. This seemed to many to be quite an overreaction, but the police stood by their action. As a result, some of the accused accepted the DA's offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge that did not get them on the sex offender list, but it got them a conviction that will be permanently on their record. The wiser perpetrators consulted attorneys, who told them that there is no existing law banning what they did, and so all charges against them had to be dropped.
So, there is a good chance that they do not have the right to confiscate your gear, but they just might be able to get away with it if you don't know any better. Someone might want to check.
scblade27
Contributor
SkimFisher
Contributor
I'm not quite sure I understand your post. Are you in agreement? Or are you implying that that a LEO is free to do whatever he/she pleases? It sounds like the latter.
They're there to understand and enforce the law, not make it up as they go along. I'm not sure how I'd be pissing anyone off? After all, that IS what the judicial system is there for. If a law/procedure/policy is inadequate - then you rewrite it until it serves its intended purpose. You don't go around making up your own rules, and as a citizen you certainly don't cater to bad law enforcement. Come on...
ucfdiver
Contributor
What he's saying is that the PRIMARY mission of state parks (and most park/preservation areas local, state and federal) is to preserve. Recreation is second to that. If diving becomes too much of a PITA to deal with for the rangers, they become worried about the preservation of the site and disallow diving. Do you really want to upset them and become another Madison (no scooters), Wakulla (no diving at all), Wekiva (no diving at all), Rock Springs (permit diving only), Apopka Blue (permit only), Eagles Nest (only reopened fairly recently), etc?
Every diver who visit can have a positive or negative effect depending on how their attitude influences those in charge....let's make it a good one.
SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Pretty much the latter.
Obey the rules and there isn't an issue.
Challenge their authority, or interpretation of the rules, and they simply may have them changed to dissallow your involvement in the first place.
You're involvement doesn't really concern me... except they wouldn't narrow it down to you. They'd narrow it down to us. IE, no diving.
Suck it up, or you may lose the right to dive at OC Blue Spring all together.
We have had some terrible encounters with rangers at one of the few dive sites we have in Colorado, and in each case the rangers were definitely in the wrong. That does not help you one bit when they are the ones in charge and they have an attitude. That is one of the reasons that our shop never uses that site any more.
In one case I witnessed, it looked to me as if the rangers were so high on their feeling of authority that they were just glorying in their ability to use it. They were frustrated and angry when we were able to get by their incorrect ruling, and they came close to vowing to get us in the future.
In contrast, last year we were using a different site and we did break a rule we didn't know about (although we should have) for which we could have been fined, and a ranger did spot the infraction. She very politely pointed out our transgression and reminded us of the rules. We apologized and agreed that we would never do it again. Life went on smoothly.
It comes down to the individual and common sense.
In one case I witnessed, it looked to me as if the rangers were so high on their feeling of authority that they were just glorying in their ability to use it. They were frustrated and angry when we were able to get by their incorrect ruling, and they came close to vowing to get us in the future.
In contrast, last year we were using a different site and we did break a rule we didn't know about (although we should have) for which we could have been fined, and a ranger did spot the infraction. She very politely pointed out our transgression and reminded us of the rules. We apologized and agreed that we would never do it again. Life went on smoothly.
It comes down to the individual and common sense.
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