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down in the Bend region that we don't know about for the deployment some National Guard down there ? The Bend region is one target but don't know if the eastern part of say Sanderson, the Langtry area and farther is included. I know that the third movie is causing problems to be shot on location in July down there but i can't see the scenario of picketing and other opposition causing this to cause the deployment of the NG ?
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

but it's been all over the news. I'm not sure how anyone could have missed it, or maybe we're seeing more of that type of news in Texas than in other parts of the USA.

Before I saw it on the news, I knew it was going on though. I was passing through Del Rio and there were Texas State Game Wardens using the cash machine at Chevron. I struck up a conversation with them and they stated they came from far away.

I thought that was curious, but no big deal. Then I ran into some DPS officers at the Pecos High Bridge. I struck up a conversation them and they said they weren't from around there. I asked what was up and they said "passing through". Right! Where they came from you don't "pass through" Del Rio.

I actually called Antelope and told him something was up, because I knew he was on his way out that weekend.

Later that weekend I got pulled over by a Border Patrol that "knew" who I was. I had to sit and wait about 10 minutes while he ran my plates and then told me "You know this are is particulary HOT right now don't you?" I responded "More than usual?" to which he did not reply.

After returning home most of the news regarding the border relates to a very slow build up of force - but not fast enough that it appears they are Militarizing the border.

I expect the number of L.E.O. to double or even triple what it is now in the coming weeks or months.

Maybe Halliburton needs a big contract in Mexico...
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Sorry, I just don't know what came over me....
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Oh, Lord, please forgive me for that one......
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Got that right, canceled my trip to go this week, so I can go again next week, weighed it all out and with 7 stops between L.E. and B.P. in two trips and one hassle by B.P. about needing a snake hunting license, it is a bit much. But I will go "on through the fog" to get my fix, I mean, I paid for my license, have a legal car w/ insurance, don't give attitude, just a little hobby not par for the course. The way the ecosystem seems to be breakin' down around us at an accelerated pace, I want to see a w.c. grayband soon. Not a real tree hugger or nothin' but the accessable parts of west Texas are seeming to be shutting down before my eyes. I am looking for a little piece of alternaland now that I may not improve for a while, just to be in the area to make contacts for places I can roam! Well, all that said, maybe a little paranoid but I am quickly learning that the rules out there don't always match up with what's on record. Law west of the Pecos, lol! Saw a 6' bullsnake in Nueces county and a Tantilla nigreceps. Not much fun here but the bull sure is ugly/ beautiful!

the very best on-line publication of all matters of the Bend region is that new Border Line newspaper. It's even better than the Avalanche.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Once again, I am curious what all the HUB BUB is about. We should all be glad that something like this is going on. I have heard for a "long" time that this was in the works. It does appear to be something that is just springing up on us because of the media and Bush's plans. It has been a plan in progress for a lot longer than the 2 months of media coverage.

I have been out there when naked illegals were found on dirt Pandale (they lost their clothing on a raft while crossing the Rio), when two guys running drugs were chased off a high cut on 90, and I personally saw 10 - 12 of them run across the road in front of me at 5 am just west of Langtry. I have heard about ranchers leaving canned foods outside their buildings so that the illegals would find food without breaking in, ranchers [bleep]ing about how their fences were ruined because of the climbing over them, and lots of stories about items being stolen.

I realize it might inconvience us a little bit while being stopped. But, the bottom line is that if we are not doing anything wrong, what do we have to worry about except the loss of a little time. I believe if we cooperate with them, they will recognize that and will eventually realize we are not the ones they are after. If we get nasty with them, they can make it rough on us.

I have spent 4 nites out there this year on two trips. I have not been stopped once by BP. I have only been stopped once by local law enforcement in Sanderson. I treated the officer with respect and although I have seen him several times since, he as done nothing more than wave at me while passing.

Once again quit your belly-aching and support the intent of this humongous job that they have to do. Maybe we should all be thankful that something is FINALLY really being done about this issue.

ECT

AMEN!!!!!!!!

Ditto...!

I see this response all the time. "If you are not doing anything wrong you should be fine." And that is followed by "Support your troops" Hey guess what they are supposedly fighting for 9besides oil)... our freedoms and our rights. We have the right to not be harassed multiple times in one night by the same officer. We have the right to not be put through illegal searches. That is what is going on. In this day and age of our rights being destroyed by the goverment (patriot act)I would like to see more "belly aching". The line of thought you are useing is the the wrong one. It does not matter if you have anything to hide, the officers that we employ and pay for need a reason to talk to you, period. Never mind stop you as you drive or search your person or car.

Later Jason

Not to defend my opinion too strongly but, if "you" are seeing my type of comments all the time maybe you need to wake up and smell the roses. When we are snake collecting, driving erratically, stopping and getting out of your vehicle in odd places, shining a spotlight across the landscape we will be targeted by law enforcement. I submit to you that no matter how many times you are stopped, they still have a job to do. They may be operating under instructions that they have to follow. Lets just say for example the "bad" guys figure out a way to get away with their law breaking by imitating what we do. Who would you hold responsible if that particular "bad" guy were to make it through undetected, and caused irreparable damage to one of your loved ones. Would you hold yourself partially responsible because you carried the torch for your supposed rights????

On the other hand if you really do have a case for "harrassment", then you should take that case forward against that individual and not stereotype all LE into that catagory.

To quote Jack Nicolson from the movie "A Few Good Men" - "Unless you are willing to pick up a gun and stand a post....." Nuff said.

ECT

The Border Patrol who ran my plates before he even stepped up to my window. Took a good ten minutes before he even got out of his truck.

I told him "I appreciate all the hard work you guys do out here". That's what I told the guys at the checkpoint too. I didn't get all gushy about it, but I let them know.

Forky

Great point. Maybe if we all did that it would lessen the impact on us.

ECT

On one hand, as a law abiding individual I would like nothing more than to go out to Alterna land and look for wildlife all night long with no interruptions at all from LE or the curious passers by.

On the other hand, LE sees a vehicle passing back and forth in a remote area that has a history of illegal immigrants and drug trafficking. They are obligated to protect the public interest, and at the same time are expected to respect the rights of the individual. This puts both us and LE into balancing act of sorts.

What I draw a line on is the stupid stuff:

I have had TP&W stop me and search my vehicle for snakes, when they know full well that if they found any snakes (which they sometimes did) it would in no way be a violation of the law. That is what I consider a “Waste of Time Search”.

I had a BP at the checkpoint get all uptight and suspicious of me because I did not make enough eye contact with him. I had to actually explain to this Special Olympian that I could not make eye contact while I was seated in a vehicle with seat belts on and he was standing behind me up against the bed of my pickup. I simply could not turn my head 180 degrees to hold a conversation.

I had a deputy sheriff pull me over for speeding (which I was) and he thought it was necessary to pull everything out my car on a search for who knows what. He was a “Good O’l Boy” and did not need to worry about such things when asked. What is funny is he picked up a loaded .357 without knowing it to [bleep] about an aluminum snake hook on the rear floorboard that he considered a “concealed weapon”. I am not making this up.

And on the funny side I had a Jeff Davis County Game Warden check my license while I was walking cuts in Musquiz. He looked at my ID and said “Where have I heard your name before”. I said it would be from operation rock cut last year. He handed my ID back and all he could say was “I had nothing to do with that”. I got the impression that he was embarrassed by his peers in that ordeal.

Some lessons I have learned:

When you feel like LE is wasting your time, there is magic phrase “Am I free to go?”. At that point they either need to let you know what offense you are being held on or suspected of. Or they need to let you go.

If they want to search your vehicle, politely ask them what they are looking for and why their suspicion was aroused. Frequently it is drugs, weapons or in TP&W’s case wildlife. I can not help you if you have drugs, no ground to stand on there. But a weapon in Texas is not always a violation of law. Tell them what you have, and where you have it. If you are prepared you will have a valid CHL anyway that the officer has already seen. As for the wildlife thing, see “Waste of Time Search” above. Tell them what you have and ask them if there is any reason you can not possess the wildlife. But be polite, no matter how much the ordeal is grinding on you. Getting upset will likely lead to more trouble and wasted time.

They can pull you over, especially near the border for suspicious activity. Like spotlighting, and driving real slow back and forth will get there attention, none of which is illegal, but it does stand out. The rest will vary depending on how you play the situation out. My advise is to be polite and do not get evasive. I was pulled over 4 times in one week out in Terrell County (3 DPS and one BP). Nobody asked to search my vehicle, and the only one that even wanted any identification was the one that pulled me over in Sanderson doing 35mph in a 30mph zone (he gave me a written warning for that dangerous display of speed).

Not to defend my opinion too strongly but, if "you" are seeing my type of comments all the time maybe you need to wake up and smell the roses.

Come on now. Let me look at this statement here. You are saying that if the majority think something than it must be right. At least that is what I am getting. LOL Just so you know the Nazi party was voted into existence by the majority. A mob is a majority rule situation. So just because I see it everywhere does not mean it is the right way to look at things. What it does mean is that you have fallen for the Bush cabinets crap. If you are against this war you are un American. Let me guess you are still eating freedom fries aren't you??? LOL Trust me I know about 25 guys in the service and almost all of them say the same thing. We don't belong there and they don't want to die in the desert for a war they don't believe in.

Later Jason

If you know 25 guys who don't want to be there then they shouldn't have joined the service. You are thinking in a pre-9/11 mentality. Oh i'm sorry we should wait for everyone to come here and then take action. LOL. Your a joke. Plus you need to keep the politics where they belong and not infect us with your anti-Bush bull$hit. This is the gray banded kingsnake forum.
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Steve W.

I'm all for rights. But are we supposed to let everyone go on their merry way without knowing that they are not a threat in any way? No way. If it takes my so called "rights" to be bent a little to secure the country I live in then so be it. None of your privilages have been taken away so stop "belly aching" . The only people who need to worry about being checked out are the illegals. .
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Steve W.

Um I may be looking at this a little more broadly than you are. I see the Patriot Act go back into effect by a narrow margin and it bothers me. This is allowed because of people taking the "it is not affecting me because I am a good guy" stance and that is just wrong. They are your rights and people have died for them. They died to protect them. People have died to allow some idiot to protest something (funerals lately) just for attention. No matter what, you had freedoms and rights once upon a time. On the current laws any of the stopping by LE near the border can be allowed by the patriot act. They can claim that you pose a threat to national security if they want, so yeah be nice!!! This is the problem. Nothing is really being done to stop immigration. This is just like the war on drugs, it is spending lots of money to accomplish next to nothing other than employing more government workers. It looks good to the public and they can take a pole around election time and it will say that illegal immigration is down. Let me ask you this, how do they know how many people are coming across??? The biggest crossing spot they have found lately was 1000 yards from a check point!!!!! Come on, you think they are doing something out there??? Please people try to think some.

later Jason

I live within 7 miles of the Encino check point South of Falfurrias. I can tell you that illegal numbers are not down the illegals are just using different routes. Instead of going just around the Check point they are going out into the pastures miles away from it. I see somewhere from 20-100 illegals a week. Border patrol here say that an estimated 250 come through a night. I think you guys might find this interesting, but most people think of illegals as Mexicans but Truth is I see and meet more People From other countrys such as; China, Germany, Norway, Africa, Vietnam, India, Afghanistan YES And many numerous south american countrys. In the past Four years that I have lived here the numbers have risen dramatically, so if anyone out there that does know about illegals maybe this will tell you a little about who is coming across. And Maybe it will tell you how easily it would be for and terrorist to make it into the Country.
Another Death and Destruction Topic, so I say. Matt.

You have finally said something that I agree with. YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS THE WRONG WAY. Through all your rhetoric you have done nothing but complain. I have not heard a single word from you that is positive nor anything about how it could be fixed. I believe that you do not know 25 soldiers that do not agree with what the military is doing to protect this country. I seriously doubt that you even know 25 soldiers or that if you did any of them would admit to knowing you if you truely believe all the stuff you are spouting here. I have spent my 20 years in the Army. I recommend that if you are serious about changing the way things are you should either become a politician, join the service, or join a LE agency. Maybe there you could work your "magic" from the inside if they did not boot you out first. I am sorry I cannot use the LOL phrase on anything I have to say on this subject with you.

ECT

talking about not understanding my words. I don't understand your logic in thinking that the military in combat of our military people and of the 2 areas of forced entry by the US is thinking YAY ! We are here ! So you have spent 20 years in military ? Well I'm at 57 years old and a Viet Nam vet and can tell you that I KNOW specifically that there were hundreds to thousands of us that did not believe we should of been there as almost any school book now states ! How do you know that another on here does not know at least 25 sent combatants of this country on thinking that there is actually a good cause to be in the areas of conflict and almost non-wanting by those countries people ? so if you were in the military for 20 years you should be in what > your upper 30ties to early 40ties. There shouldn't be that much of a age gap between us to make logic of my words or writing . LOL ! Unless I'm reading these post wrong........hell, I'll chalk it up to being feeble minded due to age.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

way off Gray-bands.... however,

The subject at hand is the border and should it be protected or wide open? And if it should be protected, but we don't agree with the current approach, then how we propose to protect it?

I may be mistaken, but I think that's what we are talking about here.

Let's forget about the war in Iraq and Viet Nam just for a single moment in regards to this conversation, and go back to the twin towers, which I believe, is the single event which precipitated our current situation on the border.

Carry on...

Forky

I agree that we are getting off subject. This tread did start out discussing the issues revolving around being stopped while searching for or collecting reptiles in West Texas.

I guess my point was/is to do what you think is right to minimize the antagonism between us and the LLE, BP, or NG. If it is a political fight then fight it elsewhere. If it is something that we can have an affect on by our attitudes or actions, then do what you think is right at the time. My opinions are exactly that, opinions. My opinions should not affect anyone during their interactions with LE. BUT, if I act like an A$$ with LE, it could very well affect how you are treated when confronted by them. That might very well pi$$ you off as it would me in a reversed scenario.

Viet Nam is really off the subject but, I would like to say that I agree that there may have been "hundreds to thousands" of US soldiers that did not want to be there. I would suspect that the hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese US citizens that are now in the US would have disagreed with you. By the way I entered the military in 1970.

ECT

I think they do a fine job and I'm happy they are doing it.
Send more of them, a bunch more of them, more BP, more National
Guard. I own Land really close to the border in both Brewster and Terrell counties, so I have a strong opinion in the matter.

Forky

for 2 nights recently by a little bird telling me living down there. It wasn't because of rain or fallen rocks on road. Hmmmm.....Terlingua Ranch property owners and home owners are advised to report any unusual activity in either vehicles , break-ins, stolen propane gas containers, and or suspicious peoples. Well that could be herp hunters on vehicles and suspicious peoples. LOL !
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Illegals don't even have to worry that badly, we are hunting snakes and getting harassed and they are having babies in county hospitals using our tax $$'s and not being punished for trespassing illegally.