You gotta love the jolly old yo-ho-ho State of Connecticut.

Seems that there was all kinds of after-hours nonsense, vandalism, law-breaking and other nefarious acts involving human waste going on this summer, at and near the parking area on Comstock Bridge Road in Colchester. The lot happens to be a popular access point for anglers on the Salmon River. The neighbors were unhappy, and justifiably so. The State DEEP Parks Division — this is taking place in Salmon River State Forest — decided to take action.

Did they dispatch ENCON officers to arrest the perps at the next sign of trouble? Did they plan a stakeout to catch the offenders in the act? Were the scofflaws arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law? No, no, and no.

In its infinite wisdom and sagacity, the state decided to — wait for it — punish the innocent! Yes, by jove, we’ve got it! Let’s block off the entire parking area so no one can access it. Law-abiding anglers be damned. License-buying anglers be damned. Tax-paying public be damned. Up went some gleaming new guardrails, because, you know, shiny aluminum is a known deterrent to criminals and people who play with their poo. Nature abhors a vacuum. The Connecticut State DEEP Parks Division shares a similar aversion to fair-minded thinking.

I asked Connecticut Fish and Wildlife via their Facebook page for a reason behind their decision. Their response was, and I quote: “The DEEP Parks Division determined that steps needed to be taken to address ongoing issues involving illegal parking, littering, noise, illegal camping, groundfires, and after hours use. During summer months daily complaints have been received from neighbors and Parks Division staff had to visit the site daily to pick up and remove large amounts trash, including human waste.”

So, let’s get this straight: you have the time and the resources to visit the site daily to clean up after the slobs — but not to be there nightly — presumably when this ruckus is going on — to arrest them? There must be a well-known witticism about enabling, but at the moment it escapes me. I’ll have to settle for Schiller’s classic, “Against stupidity, even the gods contend in vain.”

As you can tell, I’m a wee bit pissed off. The Salmon River is sacred water to me. My father taught me to trout fish there. I’ve been fishing it for over a half-century. Putting on our cooler heads, I think we can all agree that the crimes against nature and disrespect for residents and users of state land are appalling. But there has to be a better solution than punishing the innocent.

How about it, Connecticut?