Bad exsperiance with Maine Wardens

[IMshooter]

This incident happened to a shooting buddy of mine.  My friend, who is clean cut and middle aged, got pulled over by a local cop while driving through a school zone.  In our community, the school zone hours are from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm.  The cop pulls my pal over about 8 pm, which is way past school hours, and tries to write him a ticket for speeding in the school zone.  When my friend politely explained to the officer that school zone hours were over, the cop became enraged and justified his actions by stating, "There are only two kinds of people in the world - suspects and criminals."  This incident occured with my friend's two young children in the minivan.

[JerryNH]

"tries to write him a ticket"? Did he get the ticket after the ranting & raving? And did he try to fight it? I would think once the time was written on the ticket his case would be made unless the cop bumps up his alleged speed.

[wyocarp]

Cops are bad, but in my experience, wardens and park rangers are worse.

[blhof]

Sounds like the wardens were former Florida Marine patrol.  I had my car practically dis assembled by a FMP after I had been shore diving; upon finding nothing, he said "have a nice day!!!" and got in his boat and left.  I not only contacted the local office and got blown off, I wrote the Govenor, the head of the Florida Marine patrol and local papers.  Lived there 4 more years and never saw that officer again; did meet some very nice officers and was diving buddy with one long after that incident.  By alerting their superiors you do all of us a favor and maybe save the image of the hard working honest officers.

[wyocarp]

I had my truck ripped apart after a ranger stopped me for not slowing down enough when passing him while he had his lights on.  Didn't have anyone pulled over, just sitting on the side of the road with his lights on.  I coasted by him at just under 40 mph in a 55 mph area.  He said I could have slowed down a little more and moved towards the center more despite oncoming traffic exactly when going past him.  He then asked a question I have never been asked before, "Do you have any weapons in the vehicle?"  He knew I probably did.  I was dressed in camo.  I told him yes, that I was getting in shape for bear season and had been hiking on a closed road til dark.  I had three .500's on me.  His comment as he removed them from me in handcuffs was, "These look like they are dangerous."  I'm thinking, "I hope so."  One had a scope, one was a 7", and another a 4".  All hand loaded for different purposes.  I didn't enjoy the time I spent handcuffed in his car while they tore apart my truck checking the serial numbers on the guns they found.  Strange thing, I thought was that they removed the bullets from the revolvers, and from the clips in all of my autos, but left all of the bullets in the extra magazines right next to the guns.  On my back seat. 

[blhof]

Unfortunately with the Patriot laws; we'll see more of such incidents.  Along with the intended use of giving all law enforcement more power, it gives bad conduct an excuse; however the above should be reported and raised to a level that will get a satisfactory reply or resort to editorials in the paper, to alert the voting public of such misdeeds.