A Shore Thing
Beachgoers and waterfront landowners have a long history of battling it out over shoreline access boundaries .
In 1663 , King Charles II ’ s royal charter granted the citizens of Providence Plantations the right to freely fish . In 1842 , the authors of the state ’ s first constitution phrased this right as “ privileges of the shore .” Nearly 150 years later , a constitutional convention specified those privileges as “ including but not limited to fishing from the shore , the gathering of seaweed , leaving the shore to swim in the sea and passage along the shore .” But increasingly , the weight of these words has been inadequate to carry a determined beachgoer over the obstacle of a waterfront landowner . So , the war for the shore has run hot on the sands and cold in the courtroom as the meaning of this right has been debated .
In the late 1970s , a skirmish broke out in Westerly between Wilfred Kay , whose home fronted Misquamicut Beach , and the Rhode Island Mobile Sportfishermen Club , whose members liked to surfcast there . Kay was a prominent citizen and business owner who vehemently objected to the presence of their vehicles , which he contended destroyed the dunes . Kay had drawn a literal line in the sand , marking his property bounds with a series of stakes on the
ILLUSTRATION : DOREEN CHISNELL AND LIQUID PLANET / GETTY IMAGES beach . In 1976 , Kay brought the matter to the Town Council , which permitted vehicles on the beach but limited access during the summer season . The fishermen argued that Mother Nature was shifting the coastline , and at least one member had a Coastal Resources Management Council permit to bring his truck onto the sand .
In September 1977 , six club members picked up trash on the town beaches during their annual cleanup . Kay summoned the Westerly police , who arrested the six men for trespassing . The case went to District Court ; the CRMC intervened , concerned about the impact of one trespassing case on the entire state ’ s constitutional rights . Meanwhile , the feud simmered . The following fall , Dick Morris , a Connecticut fisherman , called the police on Kay , alleging that he grabbed a fishing rod from the back of his truck and threw it through the windshield . Kay countered that Morris had knocked him to the ground with his vehicle ; he returned fire , filing a trespassing complaint against Morris .
The disposition of the malicious mischief charge against Kay could not be found in The Providence Journal archives . What hap-
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