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Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border
boingboing ^ | December 11, 2009 | Cory Doctorow

Posted on 12/12/2009 9:34:58 AM PST by Hank Kerchief

Edited on 12/13/2009 6:59:02 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

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To: LibWhacker

The only way to defeat liberals is to be so rich you can ignore them. I have to become rich just to live free of liberalism. This is a sad reality.


21 posted on 12/12/2009 9:54:12 AM PST by Porterville ( I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum)
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To: Hank Kerchief
While Peter is a critically successful science fiction writer, he is by no means a best-selling author.

I see.

Maybe...I have it!...His son is in a runaway balloon!

I have been back and forth a lot myself. As several have posted, there is more to this than we are hearing.

22 posted on 12/12/2009 9:55:35 AM PST by Gorzaloon ("Lay the proud usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty's in every blow!")
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To: smokingfrog

LOL “Just filming a big Hills Bros’ Coffee comercial today, guys.”


23 posted on 12/12/2009 9:57:19 AM PST by NaughtiusMaximus (Crouching Tiger. Hidden fire hydrant.)
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To: Hank Kerchief; El Sordo
Border enforcement is Constitutional, vehicle searches are less restricted at the border.

The article is obviously biased in wording.

There is a lot more that needs to be seen here, and...

Peter is probably toast.

24 posted on 12/12/2009 9:58:21 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Sarah and the Conservatives will rock your world.)
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To: Hank Kerchief
Whatever happened with the border guards, I'd give him a year just for the syntactical gymnastics in his “defense.”

“Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on.”

25 posted on 12/12/2009 9:58:54 AM PST by SoCalRight
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To: Hank Kerchief
Weird!

Just for the record tho, If you're traveling from Michigan to Canada via the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, or the Windsor Tunnel or Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, you simply pull up to the toll booth, throw your money into the catch bin then drive on. Or, you give you cash to the attendant then drive on.

Once you reach the Canadian side you are then in the hands of the CANADIAN BORDER GUARDS who question you and ask for your personal identification.

Unless something has changed with the way one can leave Michigan and travel to Canada, I say there is something really fishy with this guy's story.......

26 posted on 12/12/2009 10:02:54 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (I want a hoochie-mama for Christmas, only a hoochie-mama will do............)
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To: XEHRpa
When you are being questioned by any law enforcement official, unless they tell you to get out of the car, you stay seated. Getting out of the car and walking to the officers, then refusing to return to the car, is an A ticket ride.

My guess is that he found himself subject to the most annoying part of border crossing, that of dealing with computers, laptops and other electronic devices at a border crossing. And I'm also guessing that he had the great pleasure of being told to turn over such devices, that they will be returned to him in a couple days time, and he sincerely objected to this.

My guess also is that they're going to find things on that laptop that probably shouldn't have gone through a border crossing.

So the rules: Be cooperative and polite, answer the questions asked at the border crossing. Do not bring with you any electronic device or data storage that you'll have immediate need of at your destination. This goes for heading both ways: Canada also nabs electronic devices on a random basis. Use a common carrier express post to send such devices and storage across international lines; ideally make a ghost image of the drive you want onto DVDs and simply send the DVDs in one package, and your wiped computer in another. Or just e-mail if you're talking about minimal data like the sum total of everything you've written (which is likely less than 2gb.)

DO NOT get out of your car unless requested to. Do not think you have a right to privacy, the right to prevention of unreasonable searches and seizures, or that you have any particular rights, no matter what your nationality is. You are crossing a border, everything you have, including your person, is subject to search without court review.

Now, all that would have happened is this guy would have had a bruised ego and likely been refused entry for a couple years. Instead, he's making a big stink about it. Yes, SF writers are almost universally opinionated bastards, and shoot their mouthes off at the drop of a penny. Which means that ICE is going to have to pursue this case, including possible prosecution on whatever data's on that laptop that he didn't want them to see.

Yeah, I've no details on the case, I don't personally know this author, and for all I know, he's one of the rare persons who just really pissed off the border patrol into getting a random beatdown for absolutely no cause.

But we have his statement that he exited the car without being asked, refused to return to the car when requested - pretty sure that ICE will be ‘leaking’ the video in the not so distant future showing him swinging a car door into a border officer, and probably taking a swing at one.

27 posted on 12/12/2009 10:03:22 AM PST by kingu (Party for rent - conservative opinions not required.)
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To: Hank Kerchief

Well, he obviously isn’t Mexican or Muslim, why should he expect a welcome?


28 posted on 12/12/2009 10:06:15 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

Living in upstate NY I have crossed the border hundreds of times. I never saw anything like this. They were always polite. The idiot did something that met a profile and then resisted, you’ll see. The only proper response to a government official with a gun is “yes sir”, or “no sir”.


29 posted on 12/12/2009 10:17:59 AM PST by faucetman (Just the facts ma'am, just the facts)
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To: kingu
that of dealing with computers, laptops and other electronic devices at a border crossing.

Michigan to Canada or Canada to Michigan is not like flying into another country. Typically, you have just driven across the border and arrive at the booth manned by the customs agent. He then asks you questions and proof of identification while eyeing you and the inside of your car

Then he may or may not ask you to drive over to the inspection point so they can search your vehicle. If he does, you do it and comply with their every request.

I suspect it was at that point that the guy developed an attitude and it all went downhill from there.......

30 posted on 12/12/2009 10:20:42 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (I want a hoochie-mama for Christmas, only a hoochie-mama will do............)
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To: Hank Kerchief

Obama’s fault.

Why did they choose this guy?


31 posted on 12/12/2009 10:21:37 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: XEHRpa

This sounds, to me, like a new version of a Nigerian lottery scam. “Poor, poor, pittiful me. The big, bad government hurt my feelings so I want you to send me some money to make it better, and if there’s anything left in my little kitty cat fund it will go to help the poor, poor, pittiful little animals that are about to be destroyed by Global Warming.”


32 posted on 12/12/2009 10:23:42 AM PST by jstaff
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To: Hank Kerchief

Money, money, do they want it sent to a bank in Nigeria?


33 posted on 12/12/2009 10:23:54 AM PST by faucetman (Just the facts ma'am, just the facts)
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To: PGR88
I live on the border. In the hundreds of times I have crossed into Canada, have never seen an exit inspection by US Customs/Border Security when leaving the United States.

You're right. One deals with the Americans coming south, and with the Canadians going north. Hmmm...

34 posted on 12/12/2009 10:27:31 AM PST by AnnaZ (I keep 2 magnums in my desk.One's a gun and I keep it loaded.Other's a bottle and it keeps me loaded)
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To: kingu

“DO NOT get out of your car unless requested to. Do not think you have a right to privacy, the right to prevention of unreasonable searches and seizures, or that you have any particular rights, no matter what your nationality i”

That ‘constitition’ that protected us back in the twentieth century is long gone. You will sniff that leather, and you vill like it!


35 posted on 12/12/2009 10:39:27 AM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: fanfan

PING


36 posted on 12/12/2009 10:41:43 AM PST by Natural Born 54
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To: kingu

LOL

And I wonder just how much kiddie porn will be “discovered during the foresic search” of this Loons PC.

Almost always bad to travel with a computing device.

I have never heard of this guy, or his work - so I looked up his website. After that, I doubt I’ll bother with any of his books.

This “story” is all over the web. DHS will most certainly do all that they can to nail this clown.


37 posted on 12/12/2009 10:47:57 AM PST by ASOC (Always act in accordance with the dictates of your conscience, my boy, and chance the consequences)
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To: verga
"I am sorry to be the one to say this, he got exactly what he deserved. When an officer of the law tells you to do something you do it. Protest later to his superiors if you feel your rights have been violated, but you comply first and complain later."

Say,how did that work out for the Jews in the 1930s and 40s?

Yeah,I know this isn't Nazi Germany or Communist Country X ,but freedoms disappear when people no longer stand up for them.

And just exactly why should any person be deprived of all rights,including the right to know why his person or belongings are being searched,simply because you or the "authorities" want the people cowed and ignorant?

Upholding rights and freedoms of people we don't particularly like is the test of whether we believe in those things as a principle or just for people in our special group.Too many people fail the test.

I wonder if such a compliant populace was envisioned by T. Jefferson and company?

38 posted on 12/12/2009 10:52:35 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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To: Hank Kerchief

If the account of the beating is true, he must have done something. A beating and jailing because of a few smart-a$$ remarks is not right and sounds more like what happens on Mexico’s southern border. Like a previous poster said, the videos will tell the tale and, preconceived notions aside, I’ll go with the old ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing - not, innocent until you get your name in the paper.


39 posted on 12/12/2009 10:53:15 AM PST by AD from SpringBay (We deserve the government we allow.)
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To: BlazingArizona

Sure, that constitution still protects you. It also states that the federal government has control of the borders, and has the ability to regulate travel and what is imported or exported. This isn’t a random stop, this is a border crossing, you are taking property and yourself across an international boundary and you are subject to search when doing this.

One of the few things anymore that actually follows the constitution.


40 posted on 12/12/2009 10:54:43 AM PST by kingu (Party for rent - conservative opinions not required.)
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