rammed:by the customs & border patrol

[therapy23]

Originally Posted by LooseDiamond

Here you go:

Coast Guard Boardings and Your Fourth Amendment Rights, Part 1 | Sail Feed

Great link, thanks.

But they are the only agency that can do that.................?

My understanding is that other agencies (maybe not DEA but I think they too) need a warrant. Sheriff, city police, fish and game etc.

[Minnewaska]

Can you imagine, as part of your job, you have to enter a strangers boat? As time passes, you learn that many of those strangers actually have something to hide. Most are probably lack of PFDs, but you'll find contraband, etc, in your career. Can you imagine getting up in the morning and wondering if today will be the day that one of those boarding results in the crew firing shots? Will it appear more likely from the crew that is mouthing off and angry?

We can debate whether they should have the authority to do so, but the boarding officers are doing what they are told, not what they decided on a whim. How much would you need to be paid to risk your life at your job? Pretty brave in my book.

[AKscooter]

many of those strangers actually have something to hide. Please cite your source number of boardings and percentages of contraband found.

Pretty brave in my book. Lets see what an average boarding party carries as far as weapons at the ready. Not forgetting to include the yahoo in the bow with a machine gun pointed at the "suspects" Now lets see what the "suspects" are packing...... Brave my arse...... Coast Guard aren't victims, they choose their job as do any other law enforcement groups. If they want to board I doubt anyone is gonna stop them.......ever......Although I would love to see them board a foreign trawler in the Aleutian region. Naw...that is not gonna happen.....lol Since I am a citizen of the US and somewhere there is this document saying that they do not have the right...then yea...I will say something.......

[Minnewaska]

Do I really need to go find a citing that the USCG finds contraband? That's just stubborn.

I have a good friend whose daughter is currently applying to the Coast Guard academy. I'm sure, in her career, she will be asked to do boardings. I am also absolutely certain that this lovely young lady, who is a great student and loves the water, has no intent to be the bully she will be characterized as by the stubborn. She will have to do her job.

Also, before one throws a stone at the bravery of someone who enters a room, without knowing what or who is waiting for them, I would like to know they've had the ball$ to try it. Armed or not.

Consider this. Over your entire career, there is going to be just one single day that you are going to walk into your cozy office and there is going to be someone in there with a gun that knows he needs to get past you to stay out of jail. Just one day and you don't know which it will be. You keeping the job? You can take a gun with you, if you think it changes anything.

[Capt.aaron]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

Do I really need to go find a citing that the USCG finds contraband? That's just stubborn.

I have a good friend whose daughter is currently applying to the Coast Guard academy. I'm sure, in her career, she will be asked to do boardings. I am also absolutely certain that this lovely young lady, who is a great student and loves the water, has no intent to be the bully she will be characterized as by the stubborn. She will have to do her job.

Also, before one throws a stone at the bravery of someone who enters a room, without knowing what or who is waiting for them, I would like to know they've had the ball$ to try it. Armed or not.

Consider this. Over your entire career, there is going to be just one single day that you are going to walk into your cozy office and there is going to be someone in there with a gun that knows he needs to get past you to stay out of jail. Just one day and you don't know which it will be. You keeping the job? You can take a gun with you, if you think it changes anything.

The poor girl, My heart goes out to her. Just out of curiosity, where did she grow up and what do you think prompted her interest in the Coast Guard? I've been doing a personal survey/ research. I alway's ask Coasties where they are from and why they joined. They alway's join with the best of intensions and usually they end up disapointed with how it actually is.
I'd like to know how many coast gaurdsman have died at the hands of an agressor in the situation of a boarding. I'm betting close to none. They do fall in the line of Rescue which is the highest form of selfless sacrifice and should be honored to the highest degree. The boarding crew's are a different troup than the Rescue. The rescue crew's are like the elite or special force. We've all seen the swimmer movie with Kevin and Ashton. We need a Coast Guard, no doubt, and their boarding procedures, once you've gone through them, are mild. They don't bully or intimidate. When off shore it's almost commical the green faced, wide eyed kid's they send over in the orange dinghy, It is usually me showing them some compassion because they usually want to be there even less than I want them. They're just doing what they are told. In some cases I know more about what's going on than they do, it's seem's like most boardings I've been through are some sort of training excersize.

[Minnewaska]

Originally Posted by Capt.aaron

Just out of curiosity, where did she grow up and what do you think prompted her interest in the Coast Guard.

She grew up on the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario. Can't speak to her motivation.

.....they usually want to be there even less than I want them. They're just doing what they are told.....

That's my point for sure.

[Sal Paradise]

Brave is sailing a Cat 22 to Belize. Alone. Man that does take some cuhones. I'd like to hear the tale for sure, with pictures.

[aeventyr60]

That's my point for sure.[/QUOTE]

And she accepts the risks without question.

[patrickbryant]

Originally Posted by AKscooter

many of those strangers actually have something to hide. Please cite your source number of boardings and percentages of contraband found.

I realize you are just saying: "show me your facts and numbers" but, you are demanding that posters here become accountants and statisticians. If you really want exact numbers, I suggest you file a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Coast Guard - which any US citizen has the right to do - and once you obtain those numbers, come back here to refute any inaccurate statements.

Demanding those exact numbers up front, when honest people are exercising common sense and expressing those facts in good faith, is unreasonable. We can't possibly carry on a dialog if we need every number down to the penny before we express an opinion.

[cherev]

"We can debate whether they should have the authority to do so, but the boarding officers are doing what they are told, not what they decided on a whim. How much would you need to be paid to risk your life at your job? Pretty brave in my book."

There's no 'debate'; USCG boarding a vessel, moored or in motion, while wielding M-16s is an armed home invasion if you live aboard. If there's no probable cause, they've committed a criminal act. No bravery involved when an elderly sailing couple is sitting in their cockpit and wondering what the heck is going on.

If you don't set out to daily harass and molest passersby, then no risk is incurred.

As for "doing what they're told", isn't that the 'defense' made at Nuremberg by some Nazis?

No, the USA is in a very bad way, for it's evident that the Soviets and Nazis actually won the war, ideologically and practically, and those lives expended in the "defense of freedom" were ultimately wasted. Red Dawn is thus become a documentary, with daily episodes videoed by police dashboard and intersection surveillance cameras. Except the children must shoot each other.