Guilty! Border agents now inspecting cars leaving the US
A Toronto science fiction writer who authorities say refused to comply during an inspection (IN THE US) by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in December has been convicted in the case.
A St. Clair County jury in Port Huron on Friday found 52-year-old Peter Watts of Toronto guilty of assaulting, obstructing and resisting a police officer. He faces up to two years in prison when sentenced April 26.
Watts was trying to cross INTO Canada Dec. 8 at the Blue Water Bridge when his vehicle was selected for inspection. Authorities say he was detained after becoming noncompliant. Watts testified that he was trying to comply.
According to police reports, he stepped out of his car during the inspection but was ordered to get back inside. Port Huron Police Captain Jim Jones said Mr. Watts refused and resisted when border officers tried to restrain him.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/canadia...
Leaving the states...
I have seen this a couple of time in the past year or so. My family was driving back across the border to Canada after a holiday down the Oregon coast. We cam back though the same border crossing we entered through. When we drive up I am surprised to see a portable 'stop' sign in the middle of the road, on the US side, before the Canadian customs station.
Being a Ron Paul follower and seeing my fair share of self-taped US border protection incidents I knew what was going to happen. If I wasn't a foreign visitor (and had my wife, daughter and dog :@)) I would have driven right past the stop sign and across the border.
They start the same standard set of questions that you get on the way in. I was quite shaken by this having never encountered it before. I felt like I was at an East German style checkpoint.
I think next time I will pass on the US and take a trip to Cuba ;@)
Shouldn't we get the inbound traffic under control first?
This is rediculous and in my view criminal.
This agency is out of control.
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Ron Paul / Rand Paul ...The Taxpayers' Best Friends!
RESTORE AMERICA NOW
AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN - Washington's Cruisers
http://www3.villanova.edu/centennial/js1g.htm
Leave Us Alone and Bring the Troops Home
bump
I read about his story some weeks ago in the local free magazine - a lot of people in the artists community in Canada protested wrote articles and still nothing...
that is why legalizeliberty has no intention of crossing the border - staying in Canada and fighting from here.
Website:
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"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
The 6th step in closing an open society
According to Naomi Wolf:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/ten-steps-to-close-...
6 Engage in arbitrary detention and release
This scares people. It is a kind of cat-and-mouse game. Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the investigative reporters who wrote China Wakes: the Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, describe pro-democracy activists in China, such as Wei Jingsheng, being arrested and released many times. In a closing or closed society there is a "list" of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list.
In 2004, America's Transportation Security Administration confirmed that it had a list of passengers who were targeted for security searches or worse if they tried to fly. People who have found themselves on the list? Two middle-aged women peace activists in San Francisco; liberal Senator Edward Kennedy; a member of Venezuela's government - after Venezuela's president had criticised Bush; and thousands of ordinary US citizens.
Professor Walter F Murphy is emeritus of Princeton University; he is one of the foremost constitutional scholars in the nation and author of the classic Constitutional Democracy. Murphy is also a decorated former marine, and he is not even especially politically liberal. But on March 1 this year, he was denied a boarding pass at Newark, "because I was on the Terrorist Watch list".
"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," asked the airline employee.
"I explained," said Murphy, "that I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the constitution."
"That'll do it," the man said.
Anti-war marcher? Potential terrorist. Support the constitution? Potential terrorist. History shows that the categories of "enemy of the people" tend to expand ever deeper into civil life.
James Yee, a US citizen, was the Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo who was accused of mishandling classified documents. He was harassed by the US military before the charges against him were dropped. Yee has been detained and released several times. He is still of interest.
Brandon Mayfield, a US citizen and lawyer in Oregon, was mistakenly identified as a possible terrorist. His house was secretly broken into and his computer seized. Though he is innocent of the accusation against him, he is still on the list.
It is a standard practice of fascist societies that once you are on the list, you can't get off.
reply
Interstate/Stateline checkpoints are next in line as part of the National ID Card
Encrementalism . . . exactly.
Since 1950, but Clinton put "incrementalism" on steroids as early as the 1970's with the use of lawyers and most ominous weapon called the "pen".
And never forget, “Humans, despite our artistic pretensions, our sophistication and many accomplishments, owe the fact of our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
Had he been shot 50 times by border nazis
the border hit men would have been no-billed by a grand jury (if a grand jury had even seen the case) no-billed means we can kill whoever we like and there's nothing you can do about it.
Just one last kick in the nuts, then a final deathblow
I'm rolling out the old email
peterwattscaravan@yahoo.com
I've only got spam there so far, but, if anyone wants to organize a protest caravan, I'll coordinate it.
Defend Liberty!
Disgusting.
It is amazing to me how anyone could possibly still believe that anyone is 'free' to leave the land that US government claims for itself.
This man was assaulted, kidnapped, and had his belongings rifled thru. What are the stated purposes that the US government exists for again? To protect life and liberty? And this is how they do that? By denying this man his freedom and ransacking his personal belongings? You people who support this type of BS ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
This happened IN THE US - not at the border.
He was pulled over by Border Protection Agents within the US on his way back to Canada miles from the border...
Yep. He apparently wasn't free to leave.
Apparently people aren't free to leave the USA.
I said it before and I'll say it again
if you traveling to a border alone your a fool. Your smart to go in a group, we have to protect ourselves from our protectors now people. When one person is stopped you all get out and approach. THE BIGGER THE GROUP THE BETTER, HAVE CAMERAS ROLLING.
Just one last kick in the nuts, then a final deathblow