HOA president goes nuts on kids fishing, breaks rod

Josh

Josh

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This has made the rounds, but I figured it should be here as well for anyone who missed it. And because this jerk deserves to have this story spread far and wide.

There's a reason nobody likes people who are obsessed with HOAs and most of that reason is on display here. Give those type of people a little power, and they lose their minds.

Yeah, the kids are fishing private water. Technically they shouldn't be doing that. Now, I'd prefer folks take the "better outdoors than in front of a screen" viewpoint. But I also acknowledge that initially at least, the kids are in the wrong here. And yes, I'm sure this was edited a bit to make the dude look as bad as possible.

But holy moses, this fucking guy. Who acts like that to a kid? What a pathetic piece of crap human. And the harpy behind him telling the kids "He's the HOA president!" like that matters. The kids are mostly calm about the whole thing, which is impressive. Though there are a few moments in the part 2/3 videos where they show they aren't afraid to give the drunk crackpot a bit of shit to egg him on. While I can't know for sure, the online scuttlebutt is that the kids parents had the option to press charges but declined.



As a former skateboard/BMX kid, I have been kicked out of many spots. All anyone needed to do was say "hey, you can't be here. Please take off and fish elsewhere. If you don't, I'm calling the cops". This whole deal was WAY too much by some terrible adults.
 
Terrible!

I've had similar encounters on Puget Sound beaches.
 
What a bad human. Our country is so messed up. As the HOA pres he should know better to just call the cops and have them removed for trespass. What he did could get the old guy hurt. Anyone see the road rage death where a rager goes up to the window of the other driver armed with a firearm and the victim legally shoots and kills the rager with his firearm?
 
Can’t see the link it but as a foreigner to the US HOAs simply sound like local bully pits. I get having a nice neighborhood but we all manage in my area just fine. We actually like each other and support each other as as needed.

Dave
 
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fatbillybob said:
What a bad human. Our country is so messed up. As the HOA pres he should know better to just call the cops and have them removed for trespass. What he did could get the old guy hurt. Anyone see the road rage death where a rager goes up to the window of the other driver armed with a firearm and the victim legally shoots and kills the rager with his firearm?
Click to expand...
FAFO
 
This issue is actually near and dear to my heart, as I have been addressed by multiple "concerned neighbors" while targeting spiny rays in my sister's Florida neighborhood. Most folks were fairly nice about it; only a couple true Karens, and certainly nobody as confrontational as the guy in that video.

First time I visited, I was aware there was an HOA no fishing "rule," but the development was still pretty new, and the ponds weren't posted, so I at least knew I wasn't breaking any laws by fishing parts that didn't back to people's houses. The fishing was fantastic, BTW. Lots of big, stupid largemouth and a few dinner plate bluegill in the mix. Certainly worth being asked to leave a couple times.

Anyway, this year, most of the ponds were clearly posted "No trespassing" and "No fishing." I still fished the ones on the perimeter that weren't posted, and yes, the fishing was almost as good. No hassles, and one gentleman stopped to talk about how the fishing was.

My brother-in-law decided to talk to the HOA office about why residents weren't supposed to fish the ponds, and we learned a couple interesting things. First off, the gal we talked to said we could fish, as long as we respected property, left if asked, and didn't leave any trash behind. Technically, the HOA can call the police and report trespassers, but the laws are a bit tricky and hard to prosecute, so the cops usually don't respond to those calls. That leaves Karen and Co. to handle the job of rule enforcement, and sometimes, they can be downright nasty.

The other thing we learned is the primary reason WHY these HOAs don't want people fishing in their retention ponds. Like so many things, it comes down to liability. If someone is fishing or (God forbid-yuck!) swimming in one of their ponds and they get attacked by an alligator or can't get out because of the steep, muddy sides, and the incident results in injury or death, the HOA gets sued by the injured/dead person's insurance company. From that perspective, I kind of get it.

All this said, if it's kids fishing and they're well-behaved, it takes a special kind of jerk to chase them off, and a one in a billion asshole to break a kid's gear in the process. Some folks just need to chill out a little.
 
There's a few guys you hire on various hire-for-job websites that'll come in at night and INSTALL a barrier around a pond.
 
There are many ways to handle this interaction with class. There's one way to be a dick. He chose option B. That guy probably complains kids don't go outside anymore and live on phones. I've encountered young and older people fishing on my land. Most trespassing to do so. I've never considered approaching the issue like this. Kids always get a pass and gentle reminder to knock on the door or better yet call and ask for permission. I don't really care but it sets them up as sporting people for success and diplomacy when dealing with land use stuff for their future sporting life.
 
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