What exactly is your experience? In most of how many cases? This kind of thing happens all the time. There’s video aplenty of cops out of control. It’s not at all hard to believe that Dr. Watts was brutalized for no reason, and that’s the problem. It’s credible. How many people reading this story responded by saying, “Oh, stop it. That doesn’t happen.” Unfortunately no, even before we get the full story we automatically respond with “Oh, my God not again.”

Insisting on the facts is crucial. It’s also the knee-jerk response of people who don’t want to believe in the direction the world has taken. We live in a world, indeed in a country, where this sort of thing is totally possible, no matter what your experience has been.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle

As recently as July, the only stop before crossing the border was to pay the bridge toll. The whole thing gets curiouser and curiouser.

grd, 100%.

Moderator note: Read this.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091212/NEWS01/912120305/1002/Ministry-reverses-Christmas/Writer-faces-assault-charge

I am concerned, though – it’s very, very rare to be inspected going OUT of the USA by DHS guards. I can’t say I’ve crossed at Port Huron before, but I’ve crossed at every other border crossing in Ontario (save Cornwall), and every crossing BACK into Canada does not *require* you to stop on the way out… well, except Queenston-Lewiston, but that’s a single stop light that sometimes (aka almost never) has a border guard in a booth (who I assume is running plates?).

Queenston-Lewiston is a heavy commercial crossing, as is Port Huron, so maybe it has an outbound stop?

Or did the people in his party have to stop at Export Control or US CIS for some sort of visa issue?

Regardless, I sent him a small amount of cash – I’d have sent more, but I’m not working at the moment. :(

I hope it all works out. Sadly, knowing the US legal system (I hold status in both countries), I’m sure it won’t.

http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=935

Others have commented that the Border Officers may have found his size intimidating. Perhaps that was all they needed.

As a citizen of these not-well United States, my sincere apology to Dr. Watts for this injustice and I hope someone in the current administration has enough sense to sort out the matter without additional duress to him and to address how we treat visitors on entry or exit.

I was talking about border guards with a friend who works for Canadian Immigration. They don’t oversee the border guards as of 9/11, and there’s not much oversight. I do have some sympathy for both countries’ guards though – it must be sort of frustrating to search so many innocent people and detain anyone who asks a question, but a mile down the road someone is carrying $500,000 worth of drugs, money or guns across a border that’s completely porous. So they nail journalists, scientists (like Andrew Feldmar) and writers who try to cross legitimately but ask the wrong questions. Because that’s all they can do. Because only the stupidest of criminals try to cross that border via a border crossing. It’s not like there’s a shortage of Canadian weed or American guns on either side of the line.

Besides, I prefer to ride rather than fly, any day. Shoot, now I want to organize a road trip to this specific border crossing, so that a thousand bikers can flip these jokers a birdie.

For shame, Department of Homeland Security, for shame.

$$ tossed to the Kibble Fund.

1) People in authority such as the border guard’s frequently abuse it with little to no provocation.
2) A person’s friends and family will usually defend them to the hilt in any legal problems, regardless of the truth.

But even given No. 1, I can’t think of a good reason to come onto Mr. Doctorow’s blog and question his integrity, let alone create made-up versions of the events that have no basis.

If you don’t want to donate, don’t.

This has to be the most naive thing I have read all week. What they write down is submitted as evidence so they write down whatever they need to in order to “prove” their version of the events. I think you need to wipe your mama’s milk off your mouth.

Far too many of the comments fall into one of these categories:

1) A border guard was (rude/power hungry/a dickwad) to (me/a friend of mine/this one guy I heard about) once so this story must be true!
2) Border guards have never been rude to me personally so this story must be false!
3) I have (met/emailed/read something written by) (Dr. Watts/Cory/some other SF writer who chimed in) and I like (this person/their writing) so the story must be true!
4) Everyone knows the government sucks and is out to get us all!
5) You over there who disagrees with me must be a troll!

Seriously? I thought BoingBoing readers were better at critical thinking than that.

There’s a certain irony in that.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/150368/?searchterm=Chickenlover

riots are all over europe

(looks out window)

Nope.

unless you are willing to denounce your own country in any possible occasion which is what will be expected from you in Europe. a couple of americans i know get by only by continually repeating how bad EVERYTHING in america is which i find sad since i know they do not really believe it. but they have no other choice if they want to fit in.

I’ve been an American expat in Europe for sixteen years, nearly seventeen now, and that’s just not true.

What Europeans want, what anyone wants, is the truth rather than propaganda. Admit what’s bad, celebrate what’s good, explain what’s incomprehensible. And listen when your hosts do the same about their country.

The highest pressure to “denounce your foreign ways and love everything we do here in the best country in the world” comes from Americans. Europeans, used to living cheek by jowl with foreigners, are not the snobs you think they are, as long as you don’t try to feed them a bunch of BS about the infallibility of America.

Sorry, I know it’s off-topic, but the rest of the world really doesn’t hate the US. This bunker mentality, where (a) Europe is consumed by anarchy and (b) everyone hates America and humiliates American expats, is only possible because so very few Americans seem to travel much, so these stories just grow in the telling.

And, unfortunately, incidents like this damage the chances that people will come to the US and see it for what it is, for good and ill, or that Americans will come in more contact with foreigners and dispel some of these myths.