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South Carolina Legislation Meeting


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Second of all if this bill were to pass, which I doubt at this point, it will never be enforced by any law enforcement agency. There are simply too many rapes, murders, drugs for the police to waste their time on a "crime" that has no victim.

Regardless of this, GC.COM and other responsible listing sites will not list caches that are illegal. The law will have its desired effect whether or not it is enforced.

 

Alot of you would be angry if someone trampled all over your mother or fathers grave, or tipped over the tombstone just so they could find a cache and a little 2 dollar trinket!
Just because one makes a mistake all should pay, because that's the way things work
Unfortunately there may be some that are perceived to be unethical or disrespectful amongst us.

 

I'm not naive enough to believe that there are no bad apples among geocachers, but Ms. Ceips and her supporters have not come up with one instance of "mistakes" or unlawful, disrespectful or unethical behavior by geocachers in SC. They obviously have spent the past few months turning over every stone to come up with examples of bad behavior, yet the worst they could come up with is a guy standing next to a headstone with a GPS and describing it as "the money shot".

 

Publc or private though, out of respect for the dead I don't think caches should be hidden on ANY cemetery. Near or on the egde, but not in. Cemeteries are for visiting loved ones long gone, not finding trinkets left there by someone else. Those graves aren't just land or monuments, those are peoples loved ones...

 

Your perception of cemeteries is a common one, but not the only one. Historically, they were a place for family outings and picnics. The concept that are solemn places, reserved only for mourning is fairly recent.

 

Even today cemeteries are used by joggers, bird watchers, geneologists, photographers, historians, walkers, curiosity seekers, artists, nature lovers and many others. Some still even have picnic tables. I see no reason that respectful geocachers can't be among the users.

 

Of course caches shouldn't be placed on or near graves and if mourners are present geocachers should come back another day. But there are dozens of legitmate uses of cemeteries beyond mourning and I don't believe geocaching should be singled out.

 

From a personal standpoint, when my time comes the best monument to me would be people having fun on the ground above me.

Edited by briansnat
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My biggest complaint is this -- the legislation is both unnecessary and unfair.

 

As has been stated several times, there are already laws on the books that cover both trespassing and vandalism. There are laws specific to cemeteries (even including damage done to fences, plants, trees, etc. in addition to damage done to gravestones) and laws protecting historic and archaeological places. If this law is truly about protecting these sites from vandalism, then that is already covered under existing laws, and no other law is necessary.

 

This law also singles out geocachers, who have a history of protecting the environment and helping raise awareness of historical places. Maybe one or two have gone too far, but they're the exception. If you want to ban any sort of activity that might possibly cause damage to one of these places, where do you stop? Do you ban teachers from bringing classes on field trips, ban joggers, ban bird watchers, ban the general public from these places, because they are just as guilty as we are.

 

(I apologize if this sounds a little harsh -- I didn't mean for it to.)

 

Edit:

 

Session has started. We're on Page #9.

Edited by RandLD
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