Quote Originally Posted by wyodjm View Post
I grew up in the era when the feds and many state officials thought all falconers were crooks. That is one of the things that spawned Operation Falcon. It's been suggested many times that Operation Falcon was also an attempt on the part of the feds to shut down the Peregrine Fund!
At first I found it somewhat peculiar that my sponsor had built his mews out in the woods in a man made clearing that had obviously taken a bit of effort to create until I learned about operation falcon. Then it made a lot of sense.

Back then the "raids" abusing power were mostly limited to the fringe - groups like falconers to which the mainstream population would never relate. That includes stuff like Ruby Ridge and Waco where
the feds escalated situations which could probably have ended much differently to justify the increased militarization of law enforcement. Back then it was primarily a federal thing but now it has trickled down to state agencies and sometimes even further.

The majority of Americans who are totally engrossed with their phones and social networking are, unfortunately, unconcerned with constitutional rights. If they are told we need to buy the police department tanks to keep them safe they are happy as long as you don't ask them to look up from their phones and/or actually DO something to help their own cause. IMO this is really a case of Rome burning while
the little Nero's play their electronic violins. Dan, you and I were raised to be conscious of and cherish our rights. I was taught that it was my obligation to defend the right to free speech no matter how offensive I found that speech to be. No longer, now you are only entitled to free speech if that speech is sufficiently PC and if you offend anyone you need to apologize immediately and throw yourself on your sword or risk the PC police storming your castle. I am sure that the CA authorities could spin a video themselves that would convince a large number of those unconcerned masses that the raid on
the Casa de Fred was not only legal but justified and necessary. Sometimes I feel like the Constitution and Bill of Rights are actually offensive to many of these people.

This is a much more basic problem than falconry regulations and how we, as falconers, are treated by government.

I get the point that in this case a falconer was the victim but I feel that dragging falconry into the issue is not germane to the solution.