I didn't cause him harm ... idiots who can't control their behavior based on something they read did. Those people need to be held accountable for the harm they caused.
We do disagree.
I understand your position. I have many things in my life that I am similarly passionate about. At this point, it seems that you are focusing your energy productively. But I seem to remember that your initial goal was to show a fellow diver what a [fine citizen?] you can be. You loaded the gun. You screamed fire in the crowded theater. You cast this diver in a false light - that he was doing something that was wrong when the law actually says it is perfectly acceptable to do it (this is an important point - if what he did was illegal, you wouldn't have had to resort to self-help to address your offence - but it was not illegal and was not even a grey area - holding a license, he as the right to one octo a day, male or female, eggs or not). Sometimes we have to tolerate borish people. But you took matters into your own hands with a stated pupose of teaching this fellow a lesson.
The results were predictable (forseeable is the legal word). But for you posting his picture and license plate with the plea to figure out who the diver is so you can get the word out, nobody threatens his family, nobody calls his boss so that he loses his job, nobody threatens him, etc. etc. And your call to arms was done without the knowledge that he was apparently a racist or animal abuser - all of that came later as has served as a crutch for justifying some really B.S. positions (bad fills, spearing, damage to his property and equipment, etc. - eco terrorism, anyone?).
I'm not looking for any pound of flesh from you - it's not mine to have. Nobody has wronged me here on a personal level, even those who are resorting to ad hominem arguments. But this diver was materailly, measurably wronged - if not by you, then by those who picked up the gun you loaded to prove what a [fine citizen?] you are. I thought you had owned up to that but apparently you don't. In our society, redress for wrong is properly left to the courts (or other governing bodies) and not self help. You chose self help. If presented to a judge and jury, maybe they would say you didn't cross the civil or criminal line. Maybe they wouldn't. I hope you don't have to go through that experience - but continued assertions of righteousness probably don't help your chances.
Finally, to the peanut gallery: I don't know why anyone would find it bullying or whining (two fairly incompatible expressions) to offer to help someone who has been materially wronged seek redress in the courts. This is why we have courts - so we don't pick up spearguns or otherwise take matters into our own hands. Maybe it is because it threatens a perceived right to electronically kick people in the nuts when they don't like it when someone does something the law expressly says is okay?
Frankly, I am running out of respect so I will just sign off.
db
