Man who threw fishermans fish back is charged

bgeorge

Michael Leaming who stole a fishermans fish and threw it back in the water has now been charged.  Guy is a vegan activist.  Would be kind of funny if he had to spend a few days in jail and they served fish.

spangler

Ha!  Good.  I remember seeing that on the news.  Nut jobs.

gritsnhuntin1

Wow, this is amazing.

INTREPID377

Seems the Leaming family of Osceola County have had more than a few run-ins with the law.  A case search on their website makes for interesting reading.

drgibby

Would be funny if someone kicked his vegan butt with a leather boot, just sayin............

Soda Popinski

Good.   Dirt bag  

gladesman

D

plumber1969

I grew up in the swamps of south Louisiana, this guy would end up as an alligator **** quickly with that kind of stunt.

spangler

He most certainly chose a safe spot to do it

conchydong

I really do not understand what is going on with society today, and it is not just in America.

surfman

Justice served. I'm glad the law was called and he was charged.

swampwalker

Needs to replace fish w 20 Ibs of Snapper fillets...

Soda Popinski

what if i followed him to whole foods and every time he picked up some Kale I slapped it out of his hands and yelled "I don't believe in farmed vegetables!!!! Let them grow free range!!!!!" 

Hollywoodcorolla

Free range only 

WetBandit

I remember seeing this on the news.  Good to hear.

bgeorge

Now he has requested to push the court date back to Aug 13 and they granted it.  

After looking at Statute 812.13 it looks like he should have been charged with robbery also.  People clearly state fish is theirs and made effort to protect it.  He deprived them of their property.  

gritsnhuntin1

I still say wow! Too bad the guy who had the fish stolen didn't send the thief back in after it. There are some truly "special" people out there.

bgeorge

We did a radio interview of him just after it happened.  We all commented on his ability not to just break him in two, big guy.  Mr Hope resisted hard not to be baited into their tactics and did hunters and fishers proud with his behavior when in the spotlight.  

gritsnhuntin1

bgeorge said:

We did a radio interview of him just after it happened.  We all commented on his ability not to just break him in two, big guy.  Mr Hope resisted hard not to be baited into their tactics and did hunters and fishers proud with his behavior when in the spotlight.  

Better him than me. I would have really had to work on my big boy skills after my fish was stolen! I could handle a bird or even come to grips with a shark or grouper taking advantage of me like that. But  to have some person come up and throw my legally caught fish back would be a serious test of my maturity and every skill set I have to not go bananas. I enjoy my time outside away from work and the "rat race" this would be difficult to handle with the class required to not give fellow sportsman a bad name in the eyes of others. 

gottheitch22

ANY UPDATES

gladesman

conchydong said:

I really do not understand what is going on with society today, and it is not just in America.

I'm not a sure but people just don't seem to be able to resist strong arm others into their belief system - (e.g. Tag and Report system) and will jump on any fancied up government or their partners BS talking points like a bunch of trained parrots to get what they think is right for others. Like the LA guy said - Why can't we just get along. Translation - Leave each other the freek alone.

swampwalker

While I agree with a lot of what you say Gladesman, I respectfully disagree with strongarm tatics. All sides tend to speak their minds so everyone is entitled to make their ideas and preferences known. If we can keep the politics out of everyones hair, we may see some improvement. Been a lot of changes in the last 50 yrs...Bound to be some more.

gladesman

bgeorge said:

Michael Leaming who stole a fishermans fish and threw it back in the water has now been charged.  Guy is a vegan activist.  Would be kind of funny if he had to spend a few days in jail and they served fish.

Example of how serious an innocent sounding  misdemeanor charge really is with it's permanent criminal record associated with even being charged. We don't need hunters facing this over a paper work snafoo over Tag and Report rule proposal. Still waiting on Tallahassee level FWC official's response to exact levels of offense being developed for Tag and Report proposal. Crazy how folks including myself have responded to the survey  w/o knowing any details of the proposed rule that as per an FWC official the other night on a conference call said isn't really a survey .

joekat46

YES - if tag and report is ever implemented I plan to stay home, never hunt again, and hide in the closet.  What a stretch.  A reporting system will go just fine for the honest hunter.  The usual crooks maybe not so much.  The two other states I often hunt as a non-resident seem to function just fine with tagging systems and haven't as yet filled their jails with mistakenly charged "fail to report" alleged miscreants.  There is one main reason a hunter (poacher) doesn't comply with tagging systems.  Guess what that is???  If you guess because they have already exceeded or intend to exceed established bag limits give yourself a prize.

 "Innocent sounding misdemeanor charge" - good one.

Walker Dog

He does have a flair for the dramatic.

Pinman

Usually agree with gladesman and I think he works hard for hunting but, in the line of thinking on this thread we shouldn't have seasons either cause someone might be charged.....

The fish thrower is getting exactly what he deserves.

Walker Dog

Pinman said:

Usually agree with gladesman and I think he works hard for hunting but, in the line of thinking on this thread we shouldn't have seasons either cause someone might be charged.....

The fish thrower is getting exactly what he deserves.

Can't argue with his effort. Occasionally I find myself agreeing with him as well but, even then, I'm almost always at odds with the approach he and his amigos take. 

gladesman

joekat46 said:

YES - if tag and report is ever implemented I plan to stay home, never hunt again, and hide in the closet.  What a stretch.  A reporting system will go just fine for the honest hunter.  The usual crooks maybe not so much.  The two other states I often hunt as a non-resident seem to function just fine with tagging systems and haven't as yet filled their jails with mistakenly charged "fail to report" alleged miscreants.  There is one main reason a hunter (poacher) doesn't comply with tagging systems.  Guess what that is???  If you guess because they have already exceeded or intend to exceed established bag limits give yourself a prize.

 "Innocent sounding misdemeanor charge" - good one.

Tales from the Swamp Time - Oh so now if a hunter questions necessity and/or the particulars/details  of new FWC rules they are alluded to as being less than honest hunters. poachers, miscreants or crooks. Part of why I worry about rules and the abuse of them by cops is because of an incident many years ago that I won't ever forget. A lifelong friend of mine and partner on our airboat were hunting during a "mercy kill" (water was very high - deer were dying due to that) down in Glades that specified does, fawns and bucks 5 points and below as legal game. Permit was in friends name, we killed an 8 point by mistake due to me misjudging the deer and slapping his back which made him shoot it. Sitting in the high seat to drive our protocol was for me to make the call on a legal deer to shoot. I was scared that day due to being on rebound from a headon airboat incident a month before and didn't want to go but friend bugged me to drive until I gave in. The deer jumped up on edge of big willow head and dove back in - I turned to follow into 15-20 ft willows, knew it was a buck but not how big, got scared , signaled him to shoot to get the run over with. Bottom line - we bring the oversized deer in rather than leave him and waste it. Game warden listened to our explanation and said to load the boat and get out of there. Before we could get out big GFC Brass arrived and a ticket for "possesion of too large a deer" (the exact words on the ticket) was issued on the scene to my friend even though I told them I gave the signal to shoot - . Long story all the goodie 2 shoe clubs did their best to railroad him - writing letters from local folks to governor etc. recommending to prosecute this case to fullest extent. He was pissed and went for a jury trial and in the process of researching and discovery (getting states evidence) we found out for a fact that a new ticket more damning was written and submitted to the court in Dade county but not to him with negative comments added by GFC about the defendant and submitted and to add insult to injury my friends name was forged at the bottom of the ticket. Ticket was thrown out of court as all the goodie 2 shoes watched in court that day shocking them all to find out what had transpired. I may be tagged as dramatic but what I really am is a product of 50 years of hunting in the Glades and many interactions with state and federal agency employees that has taught me well to question these agencies often.The moral of this story is that we must all question authority if we sincerely feel there are unforeseen consequences from a particular decision agencies contemplate. Agencies like FWC are far from perfect as we all are and need to be taken to task before restricting peoples freedom no matter why.

joekat46

A little paranoia can go a long way.  Without doing a state by state search I'm betting more states than not have a reporting system of some type in place for deer and other big game.  Their wildlife agencies will have a clue as to what is harvested in their respective states.  Florida always gives a best guess when giving kill stats with no real idea of what is taken by all their exempts or private property hunters.  A bad and outdated system suitable for the 1950s when the population was a tenth of what it is now.

gladesman

Paranoia - Yes - when former director Alan Egbert and I were on a telecon years ago discussing an NPS issue down south he relayed a quote from FWC biologist David Maehr "just cause you're paranoid doesn't mean the sons of **** aren't after you" that quote stuck. I may seem negative for the most part but I plan for the worst with a firm hope for the best all the time. I have found out info as per FWC on a conference call recently that is surprising in both positive and negative ways so we'll see how T & R proceeds. I asked - Why is I am not locked out of the site when going back into it  -  recalling in past surveys once U fill it out U can't get back in and was told it is Not a survey but an idea gathering tool and in the past this type device has yielded very good ideas and one can go in and out as much as desired until Feb 2019. BUT until yesterday I hadn't noticed the ?survey? link photo that pops up in facebook says SURVEY but the word isn't used on any of the pages - this is confusing and weird -

gladesman

Walker Dog said:

Pinman said:

Usually agree with gladesman and I think he works hard for hunting but, in the line of thinking on this thread we shouldn't have seasons either cause someone might be charged.....

The fish thrower is getting exactly what he deserves.

Can't argue with his effort. Occasionally I find myself agreeing with him as well but, even then, I'm almost always at odds with the approach he and his amigos take. 

I am not working in unison with amigos /anyone now as I address these rule proposal issues here except indirectly supporting our Everglades Coordinating Council's position in opposition to the T & R proposal 6 years ago. Seems like I'm pretty much the odd guy out on most of this from what I see -