To serve and protect

[riontel]

Peter Watts, a Canadian Sci-Fi writer, was beaten and arrested by US border guards while trying to get home after visiting his friend. Apparently they didn't like his face or the fact that he questioned their actions. Whatever the offense, the reaction of the guards seems beyond excessive. Normal reaction for small people with power who think they have a carte blanche to do whatever they want as long as they have a suitable cover story, such as "national security" or "war on drugs". That's Department of Homeland Security protecting us... from a Canadian author leaving the US. Doesn't it make you feel all safe and warm inside? Fortunately, Peter has friends (like Cory Doctorow, for instance) who can make a lot of noise that might be heard in the right places, so hopefully he'll be ok. However, what I find interesting and disheartening are reactions like this one:

Admittedly I'd never open my mouth unnecessarily, because while you're there you've basically given up your rights. Even if you've done nothing wrong, they do have the power to rip your car to shreds and look inside your colon, so yeah... it's easiest to be cowed by authority in that situation.

Or, worse yet, this one:

Я пастернака не читала, но (ц)
Если он так же плохо разговаривает, как плохо пишет...Поделом.<...>
Но насчет скептицизма по поводу автора- я не одинока ( я уже упомянула случай с Гарвардским профессором, которому, если б не выпендривался, не начистили бы рожу).
Судя по стилю "описания" инцидента- нервный товарищ. Там правильно ему написали. -да, нет,-свободен. <...>
Проще надо быть, а он явно из заносчивых...

I don't even know where they make individuals like that and why can't we naturally select them out of our gene pool.

As Piet Hein wrote in one of his grooks

DEFENCE WANTED
In International
Consequences
the players must reckon
to reap what they've sown.
We have a defence
against other defences,
but what's to defend us
against our own?

Comments

[spamsink]

Apparently they didn't like his face or the fact that he questioned their actions.

Nothing is apparent here until we hear from both sides and see the CCTV tape.

[riontel.livejournal.com]

That would still not excuse people saying "you got to keep your mouth shut or they have a right to do what they want to you". Sheep mentality is something I do not ever want to become a norm in a country I live in.

[spamsink]

True, but, frankly, getting oneself beaten and thrown out in the cold - whether it is his fault or not - is not the right way to beat the system.

So what, if, after an appropriate change in procedure, the guards will be required to answer politely "Sorry, sir, we're just doing our job", "Please, sir, do not flail your arms near our noses", etc. while searching more and more intrusively?

[riontel.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure anybody who would pose a question "why is my car being searched" in this situation would not be expecting to be beaten up and thrown out in the cold. For me it's a natural reaction, wondering what it was about you that set them off.

As somebody who flies practically twice a week all year round and gets to deal with TSA's mindless drones on a regular basis it's very easy to believe Peter's side of the story.

[spamsink]

I am pretty sure that such questions are common enough to make the answer "Because it was randomly selected for search" produced routinely, mindlessly and without aggravation. There is something we don't know.