Jackson Jambalaya

The PO PO in Ridgeland ain't the only folks who hire hot dogs and give 'em guns. They gonna be patrolling the Stack and Waterworks Curve next week.

I was also at the Rez last night watching the Fireworks. I decided not to take my boat, I did mosey over to that boat landing on the east end of the dam. There were two things that absolutly amazed me. 1. There was almost no and I repeat no smoking, I saw one person smoking a cigarette and I assure you that as a smoker who quit 3 years ago I can smell a cigarette a mile away. 2. I did not smell the first Alcoholic beverage of any type form or fashion, and again I can smell alcohol along way off. The crowd was mixed and everyone around me seemed to be having a good time. Traffic control was fantastic, 30 minutes after the fireworks were over I was back home in uptown Brandon.

What is your point, as relates to the uniformed officers in boats, Ed?

take your worst stereotypes about bad cops, and then give them a boat with blue lights. i've witnessed it. who the heck do they report to anyway?

A bunch of laughing jackasses in Eastover, that's who they answer to.

I was out there about 11:00 and saw the DWF boats parked out in the middle. I was heading in the opposite direction and they didn't approach us.

Complaining about cops keeping it safe? If you don't want them, mind sending them down to Jackson?

I don't know if they make special exceptions for stuff like fireworks shows. But if you are on the reservoir at night and you aren't fishing, you are trespassing.

@ 11:06
Is that you Mr. Burwell.

LOL @ 12:19. Wonder if Burwell has a reference for that claim.

There may be a number of PRVWSD owned boat ramps that are 'closed' after dark, but as long as you can navigate into this body of water from other access areas, it ain't trespass. What a hokie claim.

I am a resident of Bay Park, and I was on the water Saturday night as well. I did notice a large police presence on the water, but we were not pulled over. I also notice a lot of people engaging in ridiculously stupid activity on the water. The most common idiotic activity that we witnessed was boats anchored in the middle of the Big Water with no running or anchor lights on. Some of these were in the main channel of travel between the Big Water and the Bay. I was simply shcoked by the number of boats we saw doing this. The other stupid activity was speeding across the water. Coupled with dumb activity #1, this was incredibly dangerous.

Personally, I was glad to see a police presence on the water. The OP is absolutely incorrect in stating that "everybody coming back from the big water lives around Pelahatchie Bay." The OP must not be paying much attention to the two public ramps in Bay Park, which had a large amount of traffic Saturday night, as they do most every weekend. People are constantly completely disregarding "no wake" zones and blasting through our channel planed out, knocking everyone's boats around and damaging seawalls.

Personally, I'll take a little harassment if it means a little more enforcement. Now, there was no excuse for the OP and his guests to be treated like criminals. That's another issue. But the additional police presence was appreciated.

8:11; Your post is indeed curious. How do you equate a large number of boats illegally moored "in big water" WITH "a large police presence on the water"? You cannot have the first without the second being ineffective.

Then you go on to congratulate 'law enforcement' while stating none exists.

7:09, perhaps I should have clarified. I saw at least two of the boats moored with no lights on being written up by law enforcement. I didn't "congratulate" law enforcement. I said I was glad to see a larger police presence on the water. The purpose of outlining all of the stupidity that was taking place on the water was to emphasize that the additional law enforcement was necessary. It's a 30,000 acre lake. They're not going to catch everybody. But they were needed, and their presence hopefully curbed additional stupid activity.

Your second post is even more suspect. If law enforcement was present and boats were illegally present in the area, either they all would have been ticketed and towed or law enforcement was inept. It makes no sense that two would be ticketed and others not. Law enforcement (DWFP and Rez Patrol) have bull horns on their vessels and could easily alert a ten acre area of vessels to immediately turn on required running lights.

we had two encounters with mdwf...the first was when we were in the boat parade, these two jackasses were hauling butt and cut between our boat and the boat in front of us, which was about 20 yards...mind you, this was after dark, and they had NO lights what so ever! the second, was when the fireworks were over, we were cruising home, we had a DBD (designated boat driver) when out of the blue (or black since it was 11:30 at night)my brother happened to see a boat approaching from the left...the mdwf boat got within 15 feet of us THEN turned on the blue lights. scared the crap out of us because we actually thought it was some drunk boater fixing to ram us! the officer said it was a safety check. i'm a firefighter and my brother is a police officer...both retired...we believe in safety! then we counted out the appropriate number of life vest...and they still weren't satisfied so they assigned us all a vest....seems that they were looking for something other than drinking boaters...kinda pissed us off and brought a fun night on the water to a screeching halt...that's my story and i'm sticking to it! stay safe on the water!

We saw the same thing. They were running without lights chasing people down.

Not to discredit other's experiences but I was in a boat with friends at the rez this same night and also witnessed many things. I witnessed law enforcement doing their job among many boaters being unsafe. We were stopped twice this night by different Dept of Wildlife police boats. They simply wanted to check lifejackets and safety equipment. It's required and we were legal. No problems. Both times the officers were polite and courteous. Later we witnessed a mdwfp police boat driving fast at night but they had their lights on and seemed to be trying to stop another boat that was skiing in the dark. Like I said earlier, doing their job. Again, all I can say is we had good experiences with them and enjoyed the firework show. I think I will also write a letter to Sam Polles and MDWFP praising their efforts and thanking them.