Michael Hufhand and Jed Kidwell, both 54, are facing a novel criminal charge: creating and maintaining an illegal bike trial in a state park. The two men were specifically charged with criminal mischief and trespassing for their bike trial in the Fort Harrison State Park.
State officials alleged that security cameras captured the two men spraying herbicide in the Chinquapin Rookery Nature Preserve. They executed search warrants for two Facebook accounts of Hufhand, including a site for the “Fort Harrison Mountain Bikers.”
The officials show how the men destroyed the soil and plants of the preserve for their bike path — damage that will be very difficult reverse and will reportedly cause $50,000 to address.
As probably would not surprise members of this blog given my love for hiking, I have no sympathy for these men if they are guilty and view the charges as an important development in defending our natural areas. Anyone who would go into a park to spray herbicide deserves a jail stint. An actual sentence to jail may be unlikely for these crimes but such a sentence would in my view serve the public interest.
Do you think the men should be sentenced to jail time?
Dear Jonathan:
A friend of mine introduced me to your daily articles, and I am very glad she did. I have been reading and enjoying your opinion pieces for many months now. Thank you for your thought processes and insights.
Starting with twelve years of rigorous Catholic school education, four years of Latin studies and two years of German classes, I have been a lifelong student of the structure of languages in general, and of the English language in particular. Further, throughout most of my professional career, I have been responsible for the internal and external communications of the companies and organizations I have served.
While I know nothing about the editing regimens you employ, I can tell you that they are not working properly. More often than not, the final introductions and articles you publish are rife with structural, grammatical and spelling errors. As a small example, I started to read your introduction below, and I saw two uses of “trial” where “trail” was intended. If this were only an occasional issue, I would not have bothered to write to you about it. In my opinion, these frequent mistakes detract from your otherwise excellent finished work product, at least for those of us who see them as we read.
My intent in writing to you is to be constructive and helpful. Thank you for considering my comments.
Winkelspecht Consulting
H. Brian Winkelspecht
Principal
310-833-0064 Office
310-493-3108 Mobile
310-833-2316 Fax
bwinkelspecht@hotmail.com
Principal Winkelspecht:
JT has many interests and demands on his time. I, for one of many, am thankful for his eruditions even with the occasional grammatical infraction which you claim hyperbolically are “rife’ and consist of “structural, grammatical and spelling errors.” They really aren’t and don’t. Are nits unavailable for you to pick?
One wonders why you would choose such a public forum for the schoolmarmish, velvet-fisted criticism when other options were obviously available?
You’re in LA?