I somehow thought that you had a law enforcement background, but, it was obvious I was wrong. The only clown and idiot in your statement is you, as you obviously don't have a clue.
The officers operated under the laws and applicable court rulings at that time. They did zero wrong. Rulings that dealt with their camera placement and surveillance had been upheld all the way to the US Supreme Court.
The court rulings in this case did not say they violated federal constitutional standards. It happens that the Tennessee State Constitution has stricter standards on private property/search than the US Constitution. There was no case law on these standards at the time. Now that it has been litigated, TWRA is abiding by the rulings. I highly suspect other agencies are not, but, don't know that for a fact.
You owe the officers you have been bad mouthing an apology.
He owes them nothing. Not an apology. The TWRA owes the hunters and fishermen of this state an apology for many wrong things they have done. One example (I have heard of many) a friend was in a shooting house, built out of wood, nothing illegal, nothing illegal ever done, the game warden had hunted where he could see the shooting house. At prime time, the landowner was hunting hoping to just kill a doe or 2, the game warden knocks on the door and he let him in. The game warden told him how he knew the shooting house was there and was just checking, zero suspicions of anything violations or possible violations. The friends orange vest was hanging on a hook inside the shooting house, the game warden wrote him a ticket, he is a landowner on his own land, what a crock. Of course, the judge threw it out.
To me, for the TWRA to say the following or believe what is in quotations below at any time has always been wrong, was wrong when they did that, and will always be wrong.
"During the appeal, attorneys for TWRA argued, "that government agents may enter upon constitutionally protected property without disclosing their presence or retaining a record of their having done so, conceal themselves thereupon for a time period deemed appropriate by the government agents themselves, and search the property for violations of wildlife laws. The TWRA contends that this is reasonable because the officers limit themselves to circumstances where they believe that hunting activities are taking place."
Also the TWRA stated in order for a landowner to keep law enforcement from coming onto their property, then the landowner should desist hunting. So law enforcement can go anywhere they want, anytime they want, conceal themselves, search the property for violations of wildlife laws and do who knows what else, "place cameras" with no identification and then arrest the landowner because the take down cameras the landowner knows nothing about and accuse them of stealing government property? Really? You see no problem with any of the above? At a minimum they should have to have probable cause of some kind before entering land, PERIOD!
Many have started to argue with me and tell me I am wrong, they say if the game warden sees a possible violation, something that does not look right or the landowner has asked them to watch and check anytime they see something not right, yep I AGREE! But that is not what they were doing, if they thought hunting was taking place, then they automatically became judge and jury. Wrong!
And if you say operating they were operating under the open fields doctrine, that is WRONG also. That doctrine was created during prohibition and was for chasing moonshiners. It had zero to do with wildlife conservation. I am all for catching wildlife violators, lawbreakers, etc. but the TWRA should NOT be judge and jury and like I said at the very least they should have probable cause and I like the warrant idea and also needing to obtain landowner permission.
Also, with the LACK of law enforcement that has been happening for years and is currently happening in Tennessee, the TWRA has LOST most ALL of its respect with the hunting and fishing community in Tennessee. I mean most every fishermen and hunter I personally know almost could care less what the TWRA thinks. Begging for money, but when you go to WMA's basically nothing is done. Illegal aliens are destroying the fisheries every single day! Also the CWD farce they are carrying on. I have not heard anymore, but the TWRA asked for sovereign immunity when they were taken to court for their lies and deception when it comes to CWD? Really?
And before you say go to the meetings the TWRA holds, complete waste of time, the commission has made up its mind before any meetings are ever held. Every single game warden I spoke to personally, was against the duck blind debacle, and I personally do not know a duck hunter that was in favor of the changes, but like I said, that was a done deal.
The TWRA is becoming another alphabet agency of the government that is all about money (who knows what they do with it or have done with it) that is fast losing respect of the law abiding fisherman and hunter. I know of many who quit buying licenses (I am not turning them in) because the TWRA is not checking illegal aliens or if they catch them violating wildlife laws they don't do anything. I am not saying the illegal aliens are 100 percent being ignored, it is not far from it IMO, but when violations are reported over and over and the violations happen for days if not weeks in a row, and a game warden never shows up, not one time, something is wrong. Also the illegal immigrant population is beyond dangerous on the lakes and rivers and break many laws, especially being unsafe. Most of their boats, jet skis, etc. have no numbers or invalid registration and a NO WAKE zone means nothing to them.
I fully support the game wardens, they are under paid and over worked. I have never had a bad happening with one. Well, I am not sure if this was a bad happening, but it was wrong, when we showed up to a dove hunt, many years ago, before cell phones, my dad, brother and myself, opening day about 11 am, birds everywhere and were told what area to set up in, there were piles of wheat everywhere. It was beyond baited. 3 trucks with game wardens came in, stopped and talked to us, checked out licenses, guns etc., while standing next to piles of wheat, not out of sight, but in plain view, they checked us out and told us to have a good hunt. I asked them if the field was ok, they said it looked great. I asked them if they deemed it legal to hunt, they said just fine. Like I said this was before cell phones. They checked a few more hunters, went to the big tent to eat (lots of food), and left. I found out later the people holding the shoot had done work for the TWRA. My dad has passed, but he would have attested to it, and my brother will to. We should have left, but I had taken pics of the game wardens being there in case the feds showed up. We did kill a limit each and left. I would say that is not a common happening, but even one time leaves a bad impression.
