Posted on 12/04/2004 8:03:33 AM PST by marktwain
A Rice Lake, Wisconsin Perspective
It was Sunday evening, 11/21/04, and my son and I were on our way back from the deer shack after opening weekend of the Wisconsin deer season. The radio said that there was a man loose in the woods near Birchwood, who had shot 8 people already, with 5 already dead, and that anyone in the area should get out. I looked over at my son in disbelief, and in an attempt to prepare him for the fallout, said “This is going to affect us somehow… we’re going to know people involved in this”.
We’d been spending the weekend with my father and brother in the small one room cabin with no electricity or running water, as we do every year at this time. I was taught to hunt by my father several years ago, and am in the process of passing on this generations’ old tradition to my son. While I say “taught to hunt”, I really mean taught to understand and appreciate the outdoors, the game you are hunting, and the family and friends you spend this time of year with. We also pass on navigation skills, the ability to know where you are in the woods, and the need to respect other peoples’ private property. The cover of the 2004 Wisconsin hunting regulations is titled “Wisconsin deer camps…the tradition continues”, and the 9-day deer hunting season is definitely a tradition. In northern Wisconsin, it’s still common for students to be excused from school during the season to spend time at deer camp. When I was growing up, opening weekend successes were stated in the daily announcements over the PA in middle school.
For the rest of the deer season, and even now, the accounts of the event occupy my mind a good portion of the time. There are orange ribbons everywhere here in Rice Lake, including on my hat and on my truck antenna, which are distributed in return for a donation to the Rice Lake Hunters Survivors and Victims Fund, providing visual and monetary support for the victims and their families. This has definitely affected us, and to even a greater extent, several good people around us. I pray that the families of the departed, along with the survivors, can somehow find peace again in their worlds.
Although I won’t claim to have close personal ties to any of the victims, there are ties nonetheless. Bob Crotteau was the contractor that poured our basement when we built back in ’97, and Al Laski was the manager at the lumberyard we dealt with regularly at the same time. We purchased our last vehicle through Lauren Hesebeck, one of the two surviving victims. My son has two classmates in the sophomore class at Rice Lake that no longer have fathers, one of whom has lost a brother as well. And a long-standing tradition may never be quite the same. No one could have imagined that something like this could happen. We can imagine it now.
While we may never know exactly what happened that day in the woods, there are several things that we do know. We know that Vang was trespassing on private land to begin with. It was his responsibility to know that he was on private land, which was according to reports, well marked. We know that only one of the victims carried a gun, and that all others were unarmed. We know that several of the victims were shot in the back, some multiple times.
A lot of the talk I’ve run across with regard to this incident is focusing on the racial issue. The defendant claims there were racial slurs and cursing by the victims’ party directed toward him. Even if there was, this is not ground for murder. The defendant also claims that he was shot at first, although his first account had one of the victims grabbing the rifle from the defendant, shooting all his buddies, and then making the defendant stand over all the bodies. Several portions of the state’s complaint against the defendant are printed in the local paper, and the article can be found at:
http://www.ricelakeonline.com/frame.asp?header=headline2&maintarget=../article.asp?ArticleID=7682
If you’re interested in the story, I suggest you read it. There is a lot more detail here than in anything else I’ve been able to find.
I can’t help wondering what the fallout from this incident will bring to us here, and what it will do to our hunting tradition. I really can’t say right now how I would feel if I were to meet a hunter of Asian descent in the woods, either on public land or on my own private land. Although this incident involves only one Hmong man, and not the whole Hmong community, this type of hunting season multiple-murder has never happened before, in many years of peaceful Wisconsin deer hunting seasons. The Hmong community has reached out to the victims, in the form of donations to the benefit fund, and letters to the editor of the local paper. I would like to see the Hmong community make a visible attempt to educate their people on the culture they have been invited to become a part of, and the need to respect our laws, culture, and traditions.
Not to diminish the obvious pain and horror that the victims’ families and the survivors feel, but I would like to add that both the Wisconsin hunting community and the Hmong community are also victims to a lesser extent. Healing will take a lot of work, and a lot of time.
I believe this is worth posting because it has first person information about a national story, information that the national media is not covering well.
This is so sad. I feel terribly for the families that have lost loved ones and for a town that will have to face a difficult challenge.
My prayers for the families.
To those on the ping list: Since I've already pinged you to the original comments, I'm just bringing attention to the location of this thread.
No. It is not an immigration problem. It is a problem of the liberals not willing to support borders, language and culture, after immigrants arrive in America.
If there were a national goal of assimilation, like there was 100 years ago, the crime might still have happened, but the excuses of the crime and the overall burial of the news of it would NOT have happened.
That's the most stupid comment I've heard.
Why has this aspect of the story disappeared?
It hasn't. There just isn't any new information about it that I know of. You can read all about it on the thread Ladysmith referenced.
Ricelake,
First, let me welcome you to FR. This is a freewheeling bunch of over 100,000 people who post comments to articles. The sum total of this is an education for everyone on any given issue. Here you will see all sides of all current issues of our society in one place. Sometimes (rarely) we even get along!
Also let me express our collective condolances for everyone in the Rice Lake area for your losses. It is impossible for us to fully grasp what you are dealing with, but in a lessor way I believe we all are also going through some of the same emotions all over the Country. Our hearts and our Prayers are with you and your community.
My personal opinion is this is not a case of racism gone wild, or of culture clash. I feel it is a case of one lone nutcase who felt he was personally greater than any law. He was tresspassing with impunity on land he did not own. Earlier this fall in MN he was caught 3 times tresspassing on the same neighbor's land in one day. He had an outstanding warrent for failure to pay a fine for trespassing back a few years ago in another county in WI.
I do know he understands the concepts of property ownership and trespass because he owns at least 2 parcels of land in MN, 40 acres of hunting land and a residence in St. Paul. Also noted is that his home in St.Paul is posted "No Trespassing".
I think a lot of surprises will come out when this goes to trial.
"Two opposing cultures cannot occupy the same space." I believe Ken Hamblin said it years ago.
Thanks for posting that; smee dont know.
I tend to agree with you on the lone nut-case theory, but on the other hand this issue sure has brought forward some issues of culture clash. I've been to several forums on this issue, some pretty insane. Everything from hunters' forums to Hmong forums, and a bit of everything else. There's definitely some hard feelings when it comes to hunting and public/private land use.
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