Originally posted by DNA: [b] There are several bills in the legislature this year tha harm you as a sportsmen as well as the DNR and Conservation. Bills like the canned hunting bill or the one to lower crimes and fines against people who break wildlife laws. Steele has a bill to make poaching a deer $250 and it's only an infraction. Pay your ticket and be on your way.
A person on another site contacted Steele about his bill and here is his response....
His reply:
Thank you for taking the time to right me regarding SB 52. As an avid hunter and outdoorsman let me start by saying that if any legislator knows the importance of the laws regarding Indiana’s laws regarding wildlife it is me. I’d like to point out that SB 52 does not change trespassing and hunting without a permission laws nor a number of other title 14 laws.
The current problem with the ones we did change is that many of the prosecutors will refuse to use their time to prosecute hunting and fishing violations. They are within their rights of prosecutor discretion to not prosecute same. In addition, the majority of cases they decide to prosecute are almost certainly pled down or deferred. So I decided to bring a bill that changed e some of the misdemeanors to infractions. In layman terms this makes the offender prove that he did not commit the offense rather than making the prosecutor prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the offender committed the offense. The end result I believe is that more individuals that break wildlife regulations will actually be held accountable and be punished at or above current levels. Thanks again for writing-I hope If I can ever be of assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Brent
Thoughts....???? [/b]
Several LE officers were worried about this bill and have contacted me and others including those in the outdoor press.
Right now almost no one from the DNR is allowed to set foot in the statehouse. The Pence administration has gagged the DNR.
Not a good way to make laws when the experts the state hires has to stay silent. Most of these legislators have very little respect for the resource and it's management.
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..."
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