Security checks for boaters on the rise in NY.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — For Bill O’Brien, summer had meant the bliss of the Hudson River ever since he went out fishing for stripers as a boy. But last year, after he was stopped once too often by law enforcement patrol boats with armed officers, he decided he had had it. He sold his 22-foot jet boat, convinced that a once-restful afternoon on the Hudson was just becoming too stressful to enjoy.

“One time I got stopped four times in one day,” Mr. O’Brien, 45, an M.R.I. technologist from Orange County, said. “It feels like every agency and municipality on the Hudson has a boat, and they’re all out there trying to justify themselves by finding someone doing something wrong. It’s just gotten out of control.”

Lex Filipowski, a businessman and motivational speaker, said he had been furious about the situation since he was stopped four times in two days by four agencies.

“If they stopped cars on the roadways the way they stop boats on the river, there would be a revolution,” he said.

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/nyregion/stepped-up-security-checks-on-hudson-anger-boaters.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper