Posted on 03/04/2009 11:03:08 AM PST by radar101
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said officers are trained on how to handle confrontation, and refusal to comply with a direct order is justification to use pepper spray. A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.
"I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. "Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?"
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
Waiting for the "Cops are all Nazis" posters to come out in force on this one.
Here`s your fifteen minutes idiot,enjoy
I would probably have shot him.
It might not be illegal, but at the border it is kind of stupid.
“By his own admission, Mr. Fortunato is a stickler for courtesy and respect. The Portuguese native, who has lived in B.C. for 25 years and has owned his second home in Washington for three, pulled a similar stunt at the same border crossing about one year ago. In that case, he was ordered to wait hours to be questioned before being allowed to cross.”
If nothing else, this guy just joined the secondary for life club.
“Fortunato . . . pulled a similar stunt at the same border crossing about one year ago. In that case, he was ordered to wait hours to be questioned before being allowed to cross.”
Darwin Award candidate.
The reason they tell you to turn off the car is because they don’t want to be searching the trunk of a vehicle that has its engine running. All you have to do is drop it into gear and punch it and you are gone. Or, if you drop it into reverse and punch it, dead officer if he isn’t real quick. Usually they take the keys off you also.
I’m usually pretty sensitive to power-mad people who get their kicks by bossing others around. But this guy was a dumbass. At a security stop, you do what you’re told. He’s lucky he only got sprayed.
yep. Typically, I try not to tease heavily armed people. Live longer that way.
Twenty-five or thirty years ago, I read a quote by some British guy in MI5 or Scotland yard who said “It’s amazing how much ‘stick’ people will take if you’re just polite about it.”
““By his own admission, Mr. Fortunato is a stickler for courtesy and respect. The Portuguese native, who has lived in B.C. for 25 years and has owned his second home in Washington for three, pulled a similar stunt at the same border crossing about one year ago. In that case, he was ordered to wait hours to be questioned before being allowed to cross.”
Keep his whiny butt in Canada.
Don’t annoy the goon with the gun.
Ping!
There is probably more to this story. Pepper spray requires a written report and providing first aid to the “customer.”
this could be a south park subplot episode next month.
yep.
A polite and civil, but firm, attitude will do just fine.
Being a smarmy wiseass (say "please"? Jeez, I tell that to my 3-year-old) ain't real bright.
Most of the posters so far deserve to be subjects somewhere, but you probably think you’d be on the ruling end. There’s no reason given so far why the border guard shouldn’t have been polite.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.