Quote Originally Posted by Slant View Post
46 U.S. Code § 2303

46 U.S. Code § 2304
46 U.S. Code § 2301


Those waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States naturally include all lakes and inland waters. No, I'm not talking out of my ass. I rarely do, actually. I just know how laws work, I know that some laws and concepts are universal. That's why I can make these claims and then simply dig for the respective US code when people like you claim I'm making shit up.

There is a concept in law called "judiz", I haven't found a translation for it, but basically it describes a person's natural intuition about a legal decision. Some people are better at "guessing" the legal nature of a thing and others are really fucking bad at it.

You two somehow wanted to believe a hero story (mind you, they're still fucking heros, this doesn't take away from it at all) and happily wanted to sacrifice your own critical thinking for it. It happens, no big deal. Additionally you two were looking in the wrong spot, an understandable mistake.


render necessary assistance to each individual affected to save that affected individual from danger caused by the marine casualty, so far as the master or individual in charge can do so without serious danger to the master’s or individual’s vessel or to individuals on board;


Nice to know but it has the same limitations as mentioned in my post. Its basically the same law on the books for non-water based assistance.

Still not required to render aid in this situation because of the situation created by those individuals put the people in the boat at risk of harm.

So they put themselves in serious danger to help those assholes when they had legal right to refuse it.

- - - Updated - - -

Quote Originally Posted by Slant View Post
I agree, I included another section that may be more applicable, but of course now we can debate what "at sea" means. In Canada it absolutely includes inland waters, for example. But it's certainly not as clear as you guys thought it was. And I'm fairly certain I would be able to get a case through where this results in a duty to assist. I reject the idea that these guys pose a danger, btw. They're drowning, have no weapons and no evidence of violent tendencies except a middle finger and some obscenities. If that constitutes a danger, society would have to shut down. I see worse stuff on my way to work every day.
Harassment and putting their craft in danger through their actions is the very definition of violent tendencies and threats.

People get arrested for this type of behavior all the time on the streets.