So getting robbed at gunpoint by the local authorities is just something we should accept?
I'm kinda thinking that if this is the normal and accepted practice in other countries, our state department should issue travel warning and advisories to any Americans thinking of visiting such countries where local police robbing you is a normal and accepted practice among the locals.
Come on DiogenesLamp, I didn’t say that, I hope you can see that and are just being rhetorical.
I am just saying that it IS a fact of life. Our State Department likely DOES issue advisories like that, but I doubt anyone ever reads them. When we leave our country, we DO so at our own risk, always. If you keep your nose clean (Geez, I hear my father/ranking enlisteds/officers voices in my head when I said that) you will be okay. If you do anything at all suspect, even things that you don’t know would be suspect, there is no guarantee.
Our country is a great place, and there is nothing like traveling outside it to bring the idiocy of other countries into the light.
The idiocy and the danger. Dang, we sure do take that for granted.
In a foreign country, it is your word, against theirs. The question comes, what can you do about it? And do you think you can win? Which are all doubtful. The best to do is apologize, pay a fine, and get the heck out. Turning this into a pissing contest could end you up in a 3rd world prison. And no, their prisons don’t have air conditioning and premium cable television and 3 hots and cot either.
I would recommend, that if you ever do travel outside the boundaries of the United States, that you be on your best behavior and learn the customs and laws of the country you are visiting.
So you don’t end up like these fools.
This is friendly advice.