Alligator Attacks in Florida

[orangebluegreen]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you "feel" a motorist is a threat to you or another driver for example and they show you the middle finger, you could shoot them with a gun )</font>


I won’t make too many comments on it because I’ve not read the new law, just going by what I’ve heard in the media and what has taken place locally recently. My understanding is you must feel you or another person are in danger of being harmed by another. My understanding is the fighting force with equal force has been weakened considerably. I don’t think offending someone with a middle finger would count as threatening, but if one were to appear to swerve their car at you in a threatening manner I would think that might count. Not sure if it’s going to make people think twice about aggressive behaviors or cause a log jam of wrongful death suits, still too new to tell.

Some of it may have started when a group of local off duty police officers were involved in a road rage incident just as you mentioned. They were driving in an unmarked car and got into a road rage scuffle with another motorist. Somehow this scuffle was taken to the extent where they were both parked on the side of the road (I forget how it all happened, been a few years.) One motorist approached the vehicle containing the off duty officers and hit their window with a night stick or piece of wood (something of that sort) and the officers opened fire from within the car killing the other motorist, The unmarked car the officers were in had dark tinted windows and apparently the motorist didn’t realize they were police officers. Not sure if it really matters if they were officers, but the ensuing wrongful death suit against the dept was dismissed as justifiable. The family of the motorist argued a broken window did not warrant shooting the man because they could have chosen to drive away from the conflict and did not. This may have been part of why the law was written? But in any case.....a few weeks ago not far from my area a neighbor gunned down another who walked onto his property. They claim he had a bat in hand and apparently it was considered justifiable according to the new law. The wife of the man killed said he had no weapon and was there to make amends for some dispute between the two neighbors and she claimed the shooting was pre meditated. Nothing happened. Some of my details may be off a bit going from memory, but they are very close if not exact.

BTW....all the Florida laws are posted online, I just haven’t had time to look it up.

But on to Alligators.....

 

[orangebluegreen]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you "feel" a motorist is a threat to you or another driver for example and they show you the middle finger, you could shoot them with a gun )</font>


I won’t make too many comments on it because I’ve not read the new law, just going by what I’ve heard in the media and what has taken place locally recently. My understanding is you must feel you or another person are in danger of being harmed by another. My understanding is the fighting force with equal force has been weakened considerably. I don’t think offending someone with a middle finger would count as threatening, but if one were to appear to swerve their car at you in a threatening manner I would think that might count. Not sure if it’s going to make people think twice about aggressive behaviors or cause a log jam of wrongful death suits, still too new to tell.

Some of it may have started when a group of local off duty police officers were involved in a road rage incident just as you mentioned. They were driving in an unmarked car and got into a road rage scuffle with another motorist. Somehow this scuffle was taken to the extent where they were both parked on the side of the road (I forget how it all happened, been a few years.) One motorist approached the vehicle containing the off duty officers and hit their window with a night stick or piece of wood (something of that sort) and the officers opened fire from within the car killing the other motorist, The unmarked car the officers were in had dark tinted windows and apparently the motorist didn’t realize they were police officers. Not sure if it really matters if they were officers, but the ensuing wrongful death suit against the dept was dismissed as justifiable. The family of the motorist argued a broken window did not warrant shooting the man because they could have chosen to drive away from the conflict and did not. This may have been part of why the law was written? But in any case.....a few weeks ago not far from my area a neighbor gunned down another who walked onto his property. They claim he had a bat in hand and apparently it was considered justifiable according to the new law. The wife of the man killed said he had no weapon and was there to make amends for some dispute between the two neighbors and she claimed the shooting was pre meditated. Nothing happened. Some of my details may be off a bit going from memory, but they are very close if not exact.

BTW....all the Florida laws are posted online, I just haven’t had time to look it up.

But on to Alligators.....

 

[orangebluegreen]

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love and respect nature and agree with you fundamentally. You having grown up in the glades will have more of a respect for it than I, but having grown up until 5th grade in the inner city and then moving further out the where there was about 1800 acres adjacent to my house....I spent every single day walking through the woods, following streams, just getting to know every new dropped tree, every new animal trail. This was in Ohio, so completely different than the glades. I’ve visited Fla since 1969, lived here in the rural parts since 1988. Watched every special on PBS and read many articles about the glades....even slowed down to the speed limit a few times on the alley to look haha!

I like nature and animals more than people in most cases. BUT, for some reason I draw the line at Alligators. I’m not sure it has been proven they are necessary to keep the glades ecosystem in balance? They have no predators other than last years report of a Python that tried to eat an Alligator and it killed both the snake and gator. Most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen, the python literally split open because the gator was too big to fit in its stomach.

I agree most attacks are where gators live close to humans and the gators that are in the glades and never see man are far less dangerous.

Man is at the top of the food chain and has chosen to move into the gators territory...no doubt...therefore IMO gator loses. They aren’t exactly without territory to continue on if removed from the spaces of man. If government agencies and developers want to continue to develop Florida, then IMO they need to make sure those areas are free of what I consider a prehistoric man eating unpredictable creature. If they want to protect the gator living in the same community as man, then perhaps they should not have allowed the development to begin with. Yes we all chose to move here or not, and in my case I would chose to shoot them. I don’t have a problem with them in the glades, but in the lake next to anywhere that people are, I don’t see it as necessary. This weekend a public center will be holding an event at a facility where there will be campers around the lake that has been known in the past to house Alligators. There will be dogs and children in this public area in close proximity to the lake. My opinion is when enough people get eaten and maybe once some legislator who protects gators is held accountable, then maybe we start to consider gators and man together are not a great idea.

I fully understand the stance of respect for what was here before us, but also weigh that with we are their predator, just as they are to other animals. Man has caused a lot of damage to the glades through dredging and fertilizers (natural and man made.) The glades are being choked by non native plant growth out of control. It’s said hundreds of years ago fires burned from one coast to the other and this helped get rid of too heavy a growth. Now we won’t allow such fires to burn. Bottom line is really man himself is doomed to extinction at some point either due to his own hand or through a world and universe that has natural disaster powers far larger than us.

 

[orangebluegreen]

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love and respect nature and agree with you fundamentally. You having grown up in the glades will have more of a respect for it than I, but having grown up until 5th grade in the inner city and then moving further out the where there was about 1800 acres adjacent to my house....I spent every single day walking through the woods, following streams, just getting to know every new dropped tree, every new animal trail. This was in Ohio, so completely different than the glades. I’ve visited Fla since 1969, lived here in the rural parts since 1988. Watched every special on PBS and read many articles about the glades....even slowed down to the speed limit a few times on the alley to look haha!

I like nature and animals more than people in most cases. BUT, for some reason I draw the line at Alligators. I’m not sure it has been proven they are necessary to keep the glades ecosystem in balance? They have no predators other than last years report of a Python that tried to eat an Alligator and it killed both the snake and gator. Most bizarre thing you’ve ever seen, the python literally split open because the gator was too big to fit in its stomach.

I agree most attacks are where gators live close to humans and the gators that are in the glades and never see man are far less dangerous.

Man is at the top of the food chain and has chosen to move into the gators territory...no doubt...therefore IMO gator loses. They aren’t exactly without territory to continue on if removed from the spaces of man. If government agencies and developers want to continue to develop Florida, then IMO they need to make sure those areas are free of what I consider a prehistoric man eating unpredictable creature. If they want to protect the gator living in the same community as man, then perhaps they should not have allowed the development to begin with. Yes we all chose to move here or not, and in my case I would chose to shoot them. I don’t have a problem with them in the glades, but in the lake next to anywhere that people are, I don’t see it as necessary. This weekend a public center will be holding an event at a facility where there will be campers around the lake that has been known in the past to house Alligators. There will be dogs and children in this public area in close proximity to the lake. My opinion is when enough people get eaten and maybe once some legislator who protects gators is held accountable, then maybe we start to consider gators and man together are not a great idea.

I fully understand the stance of respect for what was here before us, but also weigh that with we are their predator, just as they are to other animals. Man has caused a lot of damage to the glades through dredging and fertilizers (natural and man made.) The glades are being choked by non native plant growth out of control. It’s said hundreds of years ago fires burned from one coast to the other and this helped get rid of too heavy a growth. Now we won’t allow such fires to burn. Bottom line is really man himself is doomed to extinction at some point either due to his own hand or through a world and universe that has natural disaster powers far larger than us.

 

[HGM]

I can agree and or respect that whole veiw... I took exception to the earlier post of basicly "kill em all, I'm here now".... I do agree that the hunting season may need to be expanded and problem gators(most of whom have been fed by man) must be taken out(made boots and steaks out of).. I'm not at all opposed to that... Its the irradication of a species because of our undying need to encroach on them.. I truely do wish Fla would limit construction more.. Its become rediculous(IMO) and why I decided to move..

 

[HGM]

I can agree and or respect that whole veiw... I took exception to the earlier post of basicly "kill em all, I'm here now".... I do agree that the hunting season may need to be expanded and problem gators(most of whom have been fed by man) must be taken out(made boots and steaks out of).. I'm not at all opposed to that... Its the irradication of a species because of our undying need to encroach on them.. I truely do wish Fla would limit construction more.. Its become rediculous(IMO) and why I decided to move..