[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: The Falcarius story by a non-science reporter

I do not condone midnight raids on government land but! Not only all of the above but the standard is now set. Any midnight collector will now never tell a professional paleontologist of any ilk about his work. They could find the missing link and will never tell us about it now. It will just go into the junk pile. Don't expect a case of morals to suddenly crop up because apparently doing the right thing will get you jailed. A right after a wrong does not a good thing make but it does make a better thing. Now there will be only wrong behavior. We have to make these midnight guys work with us not against us. Any legislation that keeps anyone from doing the right thing is stupid period. Paleontologist definitely should not take on the interrogation role, they should take on the conservation role and somehow save the stuff we are forcing the bad guys (who will always break the laws) to throw away.

Frank Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming


On May 13, 2005, at 10:02 AM, Phil Bigelow wrote:


On Fri, 13 May 2005 09:48:12 -0600 Cliff Green <dinonaut@emerytelcom.net>
writes: 
Dear List,

    The short blurb plays fast and loose with the facts. Jim
Kirkland had
nothing to do with the prosecution of the fossil thief. Jim Told the
guy
that if he showed were the site was, gave all bones back, and made
restitution for all the fossils he sold, Kirkland would do his best
to see
that he didn't do any jail time. After the person agreed, The BLM
decided to
prosecute anyway.



While I agree with most of your other comments, that particular point
really bothered me.

I think it was inappropriate for a State Paleontologist to try to
convince a criminal suspect to give up information in return for the
possibility of prosecutorial leniency, particularly when the case was not
under his jurisdiction (the theft occurred on BLM land, not on state
land). As soon as he suspected that a crime had occured on federal land,
the state paleontologist should have stepped aside and let the BLM
enforcement boys do their job.

Although I'm not a lawyer, I suspect that it was perfectly legal to have
that *particular* conversation with the suspect. But IMO, it wasn't
proper to do so. Kirkland probably knew that he had little clout with
the enforcement branch of the BLM. This story also illustrates how
chaotic and arbitrary the regulatory agencies act when it comes to
dealing with fossil theft. Paleontologists should not take on the roll
of interrogating criminal suspects.

The suspect turned out to be as guilty as a hungry flea on a lazy dog.
But the end doesn't always justify the means. In the public's eyes, this
type of manipulation gives professional paleontologists the appearance of
being untrustworthy and unethical when they deal with the public. And
with the new vertebrate fossil protection bill pending in Congress, that
is an impression of paleontologists that the voter/taxpayer shouldn't
have.

<pb>
--