Saturday, September 01, 2007

The "Racist" Fishing Cop

I was talking to another Bengali acquaintance of mine. I asked him how his weekend went, and he replied he had gone fishing for salmon to this place in Port Hope, where he had rented a boat with his family. Naturally, I asked him how it had turned out.

"Oh, it was terrible." He replied. "On the top of that, our boat was pulled over by a racist cop and he ticketed all the adults on the boat."

"Wait a minute." I asked, puzzled. "You got a speeding ticket on your boat?"

"No, no." He laughed. "We were fishing without a license."

"OH." A pause, and then, "how much was the ticket for?"

"155 dollars each." He replied miserably. "What a racist cop. There were four or five boats around us, all had white people fishing. The police boat naturally went to the only brown people on the lake."

At this point of course, I had lost any sympathy for him. I mean, it's not a speeding ticket where you are going 20 over, EVERY one does that. Fishing is simple. You go to Canadian Tire, and buy a fishing license - 20 bucks per person for the year. You can't do that - then the cop has every right to give you a ticket. And, as I told him, he was lucky. The police have the authority to sieze a person's car (because it is used to carry the fish home - fish that is now illegal because they don't have a license).

I am sorry - people are trying to be cheap - but in reality you are cheating the government. And for people like me who pay the fishing license, it's good to see cheats being actually caught and punished. And as for the cop being racist - not only could he have reasons for not going to the 'white' boats (they are familiar people, he knows them, he has checked their license before, etc.) but as long as you are doing something illegal, and illegal because you are cheap, you really don't have any excuse to complain.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha. Or perhaps there's a track record for non licenced brown folk fishing up there! Well I bought my licence, so I'm good :)

Anonymous said...

Isn't it funny how some pple, *cough* like to *throw* racism in every opportunity(Read=when they are in trouble??). I think it serves him right. I get so upset when I know some pple don't follow the law and us rule abiding citizens do! I don't know if you've noticed this, but most of us non-white pple won't stand on lines, they just want to *jump* the line. I get so mad and almost had a fight with some idiot! sf

mezba said...

mousehunter: ya I too have my license. Other than the few big ones, haven't really gotten the money worth out of it this year.

Sf: I think it serves him right.

'liya said...

I don't have a problem with being cheap (I'm known for being it myself lol) but I DO have a problem with people doing something illegal and then complaining about it - how much of a free ride do people want?!

I'm glad they got the ticket :D

mezba said...

Liya: exactly - legal cheap is good, or even borderline (as long as its legal) cheapness is something of an art form - but as soon as you do something ILLEGAL you are cheating.