Have These Assholes faced charges, yet?
While it’s up to Utah’s unique system of justice to convict these people, for Heaven’s Sake, they at least need to be charged with something.
Sadly, being pig-ignorant and proud of it is not a crime. As André Dussolier quipped in an otherwise forgettable movie, “We can’t keep him here [at the insane asylum]. He’s not insane, he’s just a dumbass. There *should *be dumbass asylums - but can you imagine the size of the premises ?”
From the later article:
…and ya don’t piss on hospitality!
I’m guessing they end up with a fine of a few thousand dollars and like 500 hours of community service. I would be okay with that.
Kind of odd that they can’t drum up some kind of case by now.
they should hold the hearing in the shelter shown in the picture of the article you cited. It will provide everyone a fantastic view of the land that needs to be preserved undisturbed.
This is not really a debate.
Moving off to IMHO.
What should they be charged with, precisely?
Kobal2:
Probably the size of the one built by Wonko the Sane.
Impure sedimentation.
Vandalism?
Destruction of public property?
Although I know you are, IANAL so I don’t dare try to be more precise, but it seems that there would be applicable crimes under these rather broad headings that apply.
I must say I’m a teeny bit surprised that none of the assholes involved have been the target of Anonymous-style hacking vigilantism.
It was going to be their Christmas present, until you ruined the surprise.
As for legal charges, vandalism/destruction of public property sounds about right.
Great, can I make a citizens arrest for any person or group who ran bulldozers through the area and built camp grounds and viewing areas and trails?
Have you ever, actually been there? They did a stellar job of keeping things unobtrusive.
No, but I’ve been to bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon. Both were altered considerably for public viewing. Spent time hiking Zion Canyon using the park systems trail of destruction. Nicely done but they still hacked up the landscape and it can’t be easily undone. In this case the rock in question could be set back in place and stabilized without a great deal of trouble. Or they could leave it alone and charge him for what it would have cost and use the money for something useful. Whatever. There are literally hundreds of thousands of these things sticking up and this one toppling before it’s time is not the end of the world. The whole event making the news is probably the best deterrent against other people doing it.
Presumably, the alterations to the parks you mentioned were not made willy-nilly by some guy without any oversight, but instead by the National Park Service or the state equivalent with the guidance of experts. There’s a big difference between that and what these clowns did.
Wow Magiver. And if we all pushed them over for fun, what would we have?
Which would entirely miss the point, since the whole reason these formations are interesting is that they formed without human intervention.
Not really. The wide-spread publicity actually makes it more likely that copycats will destroy more of them.
You know what would be a good deterrent though? A nice hefty fine and a big chunk of community service.