Yes Sir, Daddy Judge!
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 6 months ago
Four days in jail—that’s the sentence for Samantha Dehring, 25, of Carol Stream, Ill., who pled guilty to “willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards,” said Wyoming U.S. attorney Bob Murray on Oct. 7.
Dehring also is banned from visiting Yellowstone National Park for a year following her incident with a charging grizzly bear sow and her three cubs while in Yellowstone as Outdoor Life reported in May 2021.
According to a report in the New York Times, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman on Oct. 6 also sentenced Dehring to one year of unsupervised probation and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and make a $1,000 community service payment to the Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund.
“The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure,” U.S. Attorney Murray said. “Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish,” he said. “Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.”
Get that? The penalties are in place for her own protection.
I think this is stupid, and that laws aren’t made – or shouldn’t be made – for that purpose.
Okay, she did something that wasn’t wise. So what? Let her suffer the consequences, if there are any. People do stupid things all day every day.
Jails aren’t a place for “time out” because someone was being a dumb little boy or girl. How many gang members or illegal immigrants were running around the state while she was occupying the jail space that should be been used by real criminals? How much time did it take this attorney to prosecute the woman?
On October 12, 2021 at 11:52 pm, BRVTVS said:
I’ve been to Yellowstone. There are popular attractions in that park where it’s just about impossible to stay 100 yards away from wildlife. (Bison like thermal features.)
On October 13, 2021 at 1:00 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
Re: “Jails aren’t a place for “time out” because someone was being a dumb little boy or girl. How many gang members or illegal immigrants were running around the state while she was occupying the jail space that should be been used by real criminals? How much time did it take this attorney to prosecute the woman?”
Your analysis is entirely apt. Resources (tax money) devoted to investigating, charging and trying this unfortunate woman could have been used to do actual work of substance, instead of being wasted as they were.
Outcomes like this are a logical consequence of the cult of safety, i.e., the idea that the government exists to guarantee the safety of the citizenry (and people in general) rather than defend our liberties as free Americans. Americans of old were not concerned with safety, per se, they were concerned with ordered liberty and their rights as free men and women.
This incident also proves a nearly-prototypical example of what the late Sam Francis termed “anarcho-tyranny,” a dystopian state in which the authorities punish the law-abiding and upstanding citizen, but do nothing to prevent genuine thugs and criminals from running riot in society, spreading violence, mayhem and chaos in their wake. The former was, by his formulation, tyranny, whereas the latter was in effect anarchy. The absence of law and order.
One characteristic of a failed state, as an entity, is that much of its visible apparatus of government is a facade, a hollow shell (failed states are also sometimes termed hollow states) which hides the corrupt processes by which that society is actually run and ruled. Legislators pretend to legislate, police and courts pretend to catch and punish criminals, and so on and so forth.
Our southern neighbor, Mexico, is often named by analysts such as John Robb and William Lind as an example of a failed state. If you double-park in Mexico City, you can still be ticketed and towed and your car impounded. But the national government and the police are either powerless to stop the cartels, afraid to move against them, or on the take from them. There is a common saying there in Mexico vis-a-vis the cartels, “Plomo e plata?” “Lead or silver?”
As in silver money or a lead bullet.
But now, the United States is taking on features of a failed/hollow-state itself. It is now the turn of our southern neighbors to shake their heads in resigned amazement and to make us the butt of their jokes.
On October 13, 2021 at 3:19 am, Jimmy the Saint said:
“How many gang members or illegal immigrants were running around the state while she was occupying the jail space that should be been used by real criminals?”
Yeah, but arresting and incarcerating real criminals is also real work. She’s a slam dunk.
“How much time did it take this attorney to prosecute the woman?”
Again, she’s a slam dunk. Going after real criminals is real work.
On October 13, 2021 at 7:31 am, Mark Matis said:
One wonders if she will “commit suicide” like Mr. Epstein???
Inquiring minds want to know!!!
On October 13, 2021 at 7:39 am, Done. said:
She should have been slathered in peanut butter and sent back to play with the bears.
Most Wyomingites avoid Yellowstone like the plague while idiot season is in.
On October 13, 2021 at 8:14 am, Fred said:
It’s always about the money. Outdoor Life didn’t report how much they spend for very good wildlife photography did they? Did they report who the special people are that are contracted by them and many others to take wildlife photos? It used to be possible to make a living at the parks photographing wildlife. But the fancy and connected can’t have that anymore. The little people must not be able to make money at this. The slaves must go work at Walmart and leave wildlife photography to the super special hyper green elite photographers.
On October 13, 2021 at 8:16 am, Paul B said:
Nanny state writ large.
On October 13, 2021 at 8:52 am, Factions Speak Louder Than Herds said:
If a Bison crosses the road and no one is there to see it, who gets the fine?
Maybe the worst government that money can buy should’ve thought about how to keep up revenue streams while promising the world free milk and honey.
Joe and Jane Taxpayer are tapped out as the costs of everything go up and away.
On October 13, 2021 at 12:43 pm, Sisu said:
“The penalties are in place for her own protection. … and that laws aren’t made – or shouldn’t be made – for that purpose.”
I suspect that may be the marketing surrounding such laws, but the genesis of such laws are more likely:
a substitute for what should be “common sense” in basic tort doctrine;
an abusive personal injury bar (supported by all demonrats and too many republicans; which is why “tort reform” is rarely discussed during our never ending “campaign season”);
respect for the first unenumerated Right covered by the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution, i.e., the “Right to be, act, remain stupid provided you do not injure another of the People”; and
the latter does not cover non human creatures, so perhaps the “100 yards” law is also for the benefit of the animals.
FYI … Did you know “garage sales” are not allowed within 50 miles of the boundaries of Yellowstone ? Apparently the park administrators are afraid if they are made readily available a purchaser with buyer remorse may leave it in one of the “100 yards”.
On October 13, 2021 at 1:46 pm, scott s. said:
Here they will arrest you for harassing marine mammals and turtles, and I think the 100 yard rule applies as well.
On October 13, 2021 at 2:22 pm, Herschel Smith said:
And I’m left with the question: How is taking photographs of marine life “harassing” them?
It seems that animals get all sorts of legal protections, while the unborn are slaughtered as if unto Baal.
On October 13, 2021 at 6:50 pm, Mike said:
My counterpoint: how much money would have been expended on the touron (tourist + moron) if she had been chewed up? Assuming she lived through such an up-close-and-personal-encounter: helicopter flight to hospital, treatment for severe bites, broken bones, mangled limbs, etc.?? I don’t think this touron had insurance for that, so who would pick up the bill?? Slapping her with $1,000 fine and $1,000 community service payment will hopefully send a message to other people to follow the directives on the signs in Jellystone to keep a reasonable distance from the critters.
To be fair, I’m willing to open up Jellystone to public hunts for bison/elk/moose/bear/wolves to reduce their numbers…..
On October 13, 2021 at 8:34 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Mike,
But that’s true of anyone who ventures into the bush for any reason at all, and we don’t declare backpacking or fishing or hunting to be illegal.
It’s true that rescue and medical care costs money, but that’s a different problem because it applies to everyone without exception in everything they’re doing. A different problem requires a different solution unless you want to be inconsistent in the application of the rules.
Thus, there is no good reason to prohibit photography of the wildlife.
On October 14, 2021 at 10:58 am, Matt said:
Isn’t the law there for the bear’s protection, as bears generally have to be killed after attacking humans?
I wonder what penalty there would be for a ruminant attack in a similar situation. Bison aren’t killed for goring a person, so far as I know, as the risk of another attack is low. If that is the case, then similar penalties would be entirely punitive.
On October 14, 2021 at 11:08 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Matt,
Seems like that would be the case. But that leaves me back where I started.
Those same laws would be in place for dispatching bears that attack humans while hunting, fishing, backpacking, hiking, picnicking, etc., and yet we don’t outlaw those activities.
Why outlaw photography?