|
|
|
|
|
|
Keep the Pressure on the Coast Guard to Shut Down the Philadelphia Gun Club's Shoots
|
|
DEAR FRIENDS,
SHARK is putting an intense focus on the Coast Guard for a very simple reason; they have a duty and a responsibility to shut down all shoots over the Delaware River held at the Philadelphia Gun Club (PGC).
We know this because we have their own letter telling the PGC that they are required to have a safety zone in order to hold their trapshoots. The PGC has willfully ignored that for more than two years now.
This letter is one of the strongest pieces of evidence we've ever had, and if the Coast Guard refuses to follow their own directive, we'll take them to court. We will not allow this situation to continue.
The Coast Guard letter, along with the three applications by the PGC, are viewable online HERE. Watch our new video on this issue by clicking the picture below:
 | |
United States Coast Guard Corruption?
|
Please contact the Coast Guard and politely demand that they stop the PGC trapshoots.
It's important to know that this isn't an issue of animal cruelty for the Coast Guard, but one of safety. So focus your emails and calls on their own letter requiring the PGC to have a safety zone and that without one, no more trapshoots of any kind should be held.
Commandant of the Coast Guard
Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr.
202-372-4411
robert.j.papp@uscg.milRear Admiral William "Dean" Lee, Commander, Fifth Coast Guard District.William.D.Lee@uscg.milMeredith L. Austin, Captain of the PortSector Delaware BayMeredith.l.Austin@uscg.milPlease also post a copy of your email to the Coast Guard's online web email HERE | |
One of the victims of the PGC. We believe she was still alive when she hit the water and then drowned. Please contact the Coast Guard so that no more pigeons suffer like this.
|
|
SHARK Responds to the Captain of the Port of the Coast Guard
| |
Many of you have received a response from Meredith Austin, Captain of the Port for the Sector Delaware Bay Coast Guard. SHARK has sent a response to her, which gives the Coast Guard no leeway on this issue.
Dear Captain Austin,
There are two critical points of contention at play and we fear that you've missed both of them. This letter is to make sure there is no question about what we are asking for and why.
1. The Safety Zone.
In March of 2010, as the result of a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) we sent to the Coast Guard, we received three applications made by the Philadelphia Gun Club (PGC) for marine events. These are the documents wherein the PGC admits in writing that it poses a danger to public boat traffic.
At that time, we were told by the Coast Guard that the PGC had voluntarily withdrawn the applications due to the NEPA environmental assessment that was required in order to get an approval for a marine event. That the NEPA assessment would be very problematic for the PGC was the reason given as to why they pulled the applications.
In December 2011, we filed a second FOIA request with the Coast Guard. It was that request which produced the Antonellis letter stating:
"After a review of your intended activities, specifically land-based target shooting with potential falling shot/debris offshore into the Delaware River, our office has determined that your planned events require a safety zone. The proposed events require the establishment of a safety zone because they have the potential to affect the safety of life and the environment on the navigable waters of the United States."
The revelation of this letter changed everything. This situation went from one where the PGC willingly withdrew their applications to avoid a NEPA assessment, to one where they were required to have a NEPA assessment and the only thing they willingly did was to violate the Coast Guard directive by continuing to hold shoots without a safety zone.
We do not understand why we were first given inaccurate information from the Coast Guard regarding the PGC applications. Be that as it may, we cannot change the past. We can, however, set this right by way of the Coast Guard not allowing the PGC to hold so much as one more trap shoot over the river without a safety zone.
Let me speak with absolute clarity; We want the PGC to apply for a safety zone and be forced to have the NEPA assessment. We challenge them to do so. According to the Coast Guard investigation, they are required to have it done. We do not fear the results because we believe that the NEPA assessment will show that the PGC cannot be allowed to continue to pollute the river and endanger public safety and therefore they will be denied a safety zone.
If the PGC thought there would be no problem with the NEPA assessment, then they would have followed through and gotten it done. They did not. It is not unreasonable to think that the PGC realized that 132 years of dumping shot, shotgun shells and bleeding birds into the river would be a serious problem for any environmental assessment
As for new PGC wall, it is meaningless. We were there two weeks ago on the river and documented all the pollution (shot discharge, shotgun shells, wounded and dead pigeons) occurring on a regular basis. Nothing has changed.
Everything points to the PGC needing to get a safety zone and yet the Coast Guard is ignoring the law and refusing to execute its duty. Considering the evidence we have; the PGC applications, the Antonellis letter, hours of video-documentation and eyewitness testimony, this is an unbelievable and outrageous failure that must be corrected. Every time the PGC shoots over the Delaware it is a slap in the face to the law. The Coast Guard should be offended by the actions of the PGC, and ashamed of its own inaction.
We call on the United States Coast Guard to shut down the PGC trap shoots immediately. Until the PGC has a safety zone permit in hand, they must never again be allowed to shoot over the river.
2. Endangerment of public boat traffic.
In response to our claim that the PGC had men aiming their weapons and firing at us while we were legally on a public waterway, you said: "individuals who wish to enter the area may do so at their own risk." This is a shocking irresponsible and entirely unacceptable position, and completely beneath the dignity of the United State Coast Guard.
SHARK is a First Amendment organization that has obeyed the law every step of the way in our conflict with the PGC. We have an absolute right to protest/document the PGC shoots. They do no right, and indeed are by your own prior statements prohibited from firing their weapons at us.
If an organization, or any group of people, were legally protesting a store and the owner of that store started firing a shotgun at them, no law enforcement authority could get away with shrugging their shoulders and say that the protesters simply need to be there "at their own risk," yet that is exactly what the Coast Guard is doing here.
We are legally on the Delaware River expressing our First Amendment rights. It is illegal to aim a weapon at someone, much less fire it. This issue should solely be about stopping gunmen from committing an illegal act. Or are you saying that anyone can grab a shotgun and start firing at boat traffic on the waters you patrol and protect? The actions of the PGC gunmen and the lack of response from the Coast Guard is unacceptable.
What is mystifying to us is that it appears that you were the Captain of the Port at the time Commander Antonellis wrote his letter to the PGC. In fact, that powerful and appropriate letter which denied the PGC request and determined they needed a safety zone was "By the direction of the Captain of the Port."
How could your position change so dramatically, especially when there was an investigation and determination made as to what was required of the PGC? It makes no sense for you to now reverse yourself.
The power and strength of our position comes not from what we believe but what we can prove. And we can prove that the PGC must not be allowed to hold another trap shoot over the Delaware River.
Sincerely,
Steve Hindi
President, SHARK
|
|
|
|
Kindest Regards,
Steve Hindi and Your SHARK Team
"Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves." - Cesar Chavez, civil rights and labor leader, founder of the United Farm Workers
|
|
|
