In reading the various stories of people's less than satisfactory run ins with wardens, I am reminded of all the various encounters I have had with them also.
Very few of them have been good.
I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Md and I've never had a friendly encounter with a GW or for that matter a Md Marine Police. Every encounter starts off with a presumption of guilt. They "know" you've done something, they just haven't figured out what yet...Is there some clause in the universal GW hand book that says they have to treat everybody they deal with with utter suspicion?
A couple of years ago, after a day of hunting off the coast of Maine for sea duck, we were met at the dock by a Maine GW. We were just getting the trailer backed into the water when he came running down to the water's edge and made a quick lap of the exterior of the boat while looking in and studying everything that could be seen with the naked eye. Upon seeing our boxes of Hevi Shot, he pronounced us to be "rich hunters as those were expensive shells". He also remarked on the hand carved decoys as they must have been expensive also? (all of which were carved by me, not bought)
Here in Vt, I have to admit my experiences with wardens have been a little bit better as to demeanor, but the presumption of guilt is still there.
Serious question for those of you with legal experience, is there any other section of US law, state or Federal that holds that the citizen is presumed guilty until proven otherwise?
Mergus
