Busted Fishing Loring Park Minneapolis

[MikeH55343]

Yes the Park Board determines when the ice is safe and does regulate when you can fish on the lake.

PB2-23. - Safety of ice.

No person shall be upon, ice skate, ice fish, use, place or have a snowmobile, ice boat or any other structure, device, apparatus or equipment upon any lake or body of water, whether a moving stream or otherwise, under the jurisdiction of the park and recreation board, until the superintendent of parks, or his designee, shall determine and declare the ice thereon to be safe. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 1010.390)

So yes she was doing her job. And people will get robbed and beaten while she takes burglary reports, damage to property reports, takes a person to jail or even a bathroom break. That is a fact of life quit being such a hater, she did what she was required to do and left the original poster with a postive contact.

How does the superintendent of parks communicate to the public that he has declared the ice safe? Does the part authorities post signs? A PSA on MPR? Legal notice in the local newspaper?

I can't remember ever seeing a public notice.

[Ringtailhunter]

Ah the utopian society of hope and change...may I be dead before I fall victim to it.

We are all passive victims of vague laws in one way or another and have been for a long time and they are as bad or worse than Moral laws, what the reference to hope and change has I have no idea, I don't think it had anything to do with President Obama.

These laws and ordinances are passed every day, while your average lunch box Joe or Jane is out working all day, and when they get home they are tired or have other things to do like making dinner for the family, helping with home work etc. They are lobbied for by busybodies and do-gooders whom minding their own business is not enough

[Grum]

One way to interpret this , PB2-23. - Safety of ice.

No person shall be upon, ice skate, ice fish, use, place or have a snowmobile, ice boat or any other structure, device, apparatus or equipment upon any lake or body of water, whether a moving stream or otherwise, under the jurisdiction of the park and recreation board, until the superintendent of parks, or his designee, shall determine and declare the ice thereon to be safe. (Code 1960, As Amend., § 1010.390)

If the superintendent of parks doesn't declare the ice safe, then they do have the right call people off the ice. It gives Law Enforcement Officers a tool and covers them from liability.

[PurpleFloyd]

How does the superintendent of parks communicate to the public that he has declared the ice safe?

He has that woman tell everyone personally

[kevfish1]

So is it safe to assume that he has declared the ice as safe since the officer did not tell the guy to get off the ice???

[Slabasaurus]

So is it safe to assume that he has declared the ice as safe since the officer did not tell the guy to get off the ice???

Maybe...

although the minneapolis parks board HSOforum has a section on ice fishing...

and under "Safety" it says "No ice is 100% safe"

The only thing I saw in the last 5 years on this was on the minneapolis criminal penalty chart, which has this as a 135 dollar fine.

My guess is it's on the books still so that if someone is a dolt, and is totally disregarding their own safety, in addition to being disrespectful to the LEO, they (the LEO) could use this statute to fine said dolt.

That's a guess though.

Didn't see anything on the parks board site about an official declaration of safe ice....

[Iceboy]

I don't think the park board has any idea what kind of liability they are exposing themselves to by declaring the ice "safe", and prohibiting access prior. Someone is going to fall through a spearing hole someday and sue the pants off the city - then they might rethink their stance...

[Nick Kuhn]

I must be missing something. Is it illegal to fish on thin ice? If i fish on 1.5 inches, which i have. Am I breaking the law? I know it is stupid but it is NOT illegal......

If you are bringing a child out with you; child endangerment is certainly a possibility. Otherwise there's really no law broken.

[Stick in Mud]

Great point, Nick...that's what I was thinking as I read through the thread. Obviously the original poster was doing nothing wrong, but I suppose child endangerment could be an issue in a case like this...if the ice was actually unsafe.

[McGurk]

Yawn... Put this one to bed boys. No one was hurt and all parties learned a lesson, most importantly the kid. It can't take more than 15 minutes out of your day to discuss and get back out. Who wouldn't want a nice cop experience in front of their kid anyway?

Don't be that guy by pushing the limits of safe ice, confronting a concerned resident, or get in an officers face when questioned, and there won't be any problems. Law or not, they aren't hassling you simply to hassle you, they are responding to a concerned call and following up.

[Ringtailhunter]

If you are bringing a child out with you; child endangerment is certainly a possibility. Otherwise there's really no law broken.

I guess the official consensus being that ice is never 100% safe that it would be the next logical step to fine any parent of a child from doing anything on water hard or soft. They legislate mandatory life jackets for children on a boat, doesn't that in itself say that boating is dangerous?

They could try to charge you with child endangerment for just about anything. I think that the ordinance would never stand. They would have to prove conditions were un-safe, which is impossible.

Not to run this off the rails but,

According to cha cha: The annual average is 341 for accidental bath tub related deaths which include slipping, falling drowning, etc.

Approximately 52 people have died from falling through the ice in Minnesota over the last 10 years. That's about 5 people per year.

[toughguy]

People like this drive me crazy. Get a life and mind your own business lady.

[Antero]

Maybe they can determine when the roads are safe for travel, when the streets are safe for a walk, when it is safe to bike.... Heck maybe they could have a law to govern every little thing we do from the time we get up till the time we go to bed.

Interstate highways are closed during blizzards and icy conditions all the time.....ever notice the gates?

[fishersofmen]

She must be a politician. Has that burning desire to bury her nose in someones personal buisness and tell them what they should or should not be doing. Typically people like this who are overly concerned about everyone else and view the general public as incabable of thinking for themselves have their own life in total chaos.

[CAMAN]

Interstate highways are closed during blizzards and icy conditions all the time.....ever notice the gates?

They don't have gates (or very few) here in MN.

[kevfish1]

I for one think that this is a subject that should not be regulated by government and it should be a personal choice. Now if they want to make recomendations that would be ok

[McGurk]

According to cha cha: The annual average is 341 for accidental bath tub related deaths which include slipping, falling drowning, etc.

Approximately 52 people have died from falling through the ice in Minnesota over the last 10 years. That's about 5 people per year.

Most people in the whole country take baths/showers, and mostly every day of the year, so that doesn't even come close to being a viable comparison. 341 deaths means that almost every day only one person of all of the people in the country that take a bath or shower slips and dies. In our country hardly anyone ice fishes, let alone every day of the year. 5 people die in Minnesota alone of the small population of ice fishermen. Compound that by the fact that they can only fish a small amount of the year, and only occasionally go when they can.

And yes, there are gates on the interstates that they can use to "save you from yourself." Head on up to the west/northwest part of the state and you will see them. They do get used, usually more from whiteout conditions due to wind and snow than blizzards.

[Ringtailhunter]

I guess the best thing taken away from this small thing is always be polite, end the confrontation as quickly as possible, becuase there is no arguing with some one like the one I was dealing with. You just cant teach a person who is sure in their own (facts)

Be calm and cool with the officer.

If I had been a donkey to the officer instead of reasuring her of my safetey she would have bounced us from the lake and I would have been the fool.

[PierBridge]

Yawn... Put this one to bed boys. No one was hurt and all parties learned a lesson, most importantly the kid. It can't take more than 15 minutes out of your day to discuss and get back out. Who wouldn't want a nice cop experience in front of their kid anyway?

Don't be that guy by pushing the limits of safe ice, confronting a concerned resident, or get in an officers face when questioned, and there won't be any problems. Law or not, they aren't hassling you simply to hassle you, they are responding to a concerned call and following up.

Thats makes to much sense!

Talk about an over reaction big deal some lady thought maybe you and your kid shouldn't be out on a lake in the warmest weather in the history of Minnesota.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

I do like the creativity of trying to fish Loring of all places. Shoulda stopped by THEE next closest lake in MPLS that day, we had a multi specie field day.

And for the record you can most definitely be cited for this in MPLS and it has nothing to do with child endangerment and you will lose in court if you try to fight it. You may get the fine reduced a bit if your nice though...

[kevfish1]

"Dont sweat the small stuff" You gotta draw the line somewhere. I for one do not think it is right for government to tell you when the ice is safe. It maybe something small but it is just not right. In my opinion the lady should have been cited for harasment. Just think about it. Maybe you are out on 4 feet of ice and I come out screaming at you cause I think it is not safe... then what

[toughguy]

When the gov't gets to decide when a lake is safe can they be held responsible when accidents happen after the lake is "safe"? Only in Mpls.

[Duffman]

Cripes, half the fun of fishing the Mpls city lakes early ice is sneaking on and not getting kicked off.

[Stick in Mud]

Yeah, I don't think it's safe to pull the "where do you draw the line?" line. It was one experience--a (probably) well-meaning but overly certain woman who watched the news was (probably) trying to help. You were in the right--no doubt--but I suspect all of you learned something, especially the little one.

[fishcraze]

Funny only in MN I lived in ND and WI and never heard of such laws since all water is considered public is used at own risk.....I have been cited with similar laws here in MN...I live across the boarder in WI and use a single u shape flaotation for fishing from time to time I brought it over and used it in MN and got a citation for not having it registered cause MN requires all self or motored propelled recreational floatations to be registard I was told get it registerd or dont use it in MN...I was fined $150 for 2 hrs of usage on MN water wow...what a great state to live...well I suppose just like city tells you where to park in your own driveway to I guess. If you park a car to long in your own driveway you got to move it or they can give you a citation...Gotta Luv MN....and yet one of the state that is in biggest financial dept....! Same O same O...

[minnbowhunter]

Sure am glad I never have to step foot in Mpls again.