See Ron's post below,

Ron,
Your account sounds like very old news. The level of enforcement of ARPA 
does vary from Federal District Court to District, but you should take (if 
you haven't alread) Judge Sherry Hutt's course on ARPA enforcement, U. 
Neveda Reno, offered around the county, for a detailed listing of very 
aggressive prosecution and conviction of cases of violation. Part of the 
formula is whether the violation was truly a product of ignorance, or 
whether a willful and knowing violation of the law, which are certainly the 
majority of cases in this area, even as conservative as this district is.

The 'individual rights' argument is specious and simply an excuse for 
destructive vandals. Chuck Fairbanks used to tell the pothunters in Florida 
who were looting Weeden Island burial mounds onm private property, that they 
should consider the fact that the New World, the Caribbean and Florida in 
particular, were the source of the syphillis epidemics in Europe after 1492. 
This little fib seemed to have a greater deterrent effect than all the 
appeals to high-minded historical values and knowledge which fall on deaf 
ears in the looter community,

Tim T.



Date:    Wed, 19 Apr 2006 21:58:17 -0400
From:    Ron May <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Individual rights and relic hunting: Thorny issues

Tim,

While I sympathize with throwing them in jail, confiscating their first
born, and selling their RV for looting archaeological sites, I might
point out
that a federal judge threw out a case of pothunters stealing rock art in
Nevada
because the law enforcement agents (and the archaeologist) could not
substantiate the value of the petroglyphs as greater than the $800 the
defendant's
expert witness placed on the items (due to chipping of the art  during
the
theft). My point here is that if the law enforcement people do not  hear
evidence
the looted artifacts are worth $5,000 or more (with proof and an
archaeologist willing to put a money value down), all we are going to
get is the
equivalent of a traffic ticket at the looting site. I think the looters
will  laugh
their fanny's off, as they slip back into the pit with their shovels and
pickaxes.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.