Caution

This graphic was created by a guy named Kai and was posted on BoingBoing. In a post on December 11, 2009, I wrote about the experience of Dr. Peter Watts, the Canadian science fiction writer who made the mistake of getting out of his car when being questioned by US Customs agents at the Blue Water Bridge Crossing between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.

Dr. Watts was brutally beaten, gassed, charged with a felony and kept in an unheated cell over night without legal counsel. The next morning, he was released but his car was impounded and he had to wolak over the bridge in a snowstorm.

The charges should have been dropped, but instead, Peter made the mistake of challenging them and is now awaiting sentencing, though he is safe at home in Canada.

If yopu are crossing at The Blue water Bridge and a surly US Customs official wants to seize your laptop, USB Key, tear apart your luggage, for your own safety...Just shut up. pretend you just aren't there and it isn't happening to you. Just try to be a mindless
happy android but most of all.... 
BEWARE!

Crossing Borders

I have crossed a lot of borders in my life. I visit European Countries and usually go through Germany, England or Spain, depending on what kind of deal I can get twice a year to fly to the USA. I have evolved a mind set that I lapse into when ever I am dealing with custom officials, border security and immigration personnel, passport control, etc...I am always polite, butmost important, I have found that for me, I just go "away". I am literally "not there". It's hard to explain, but I have a well stamped passport and I have never had a problem.

When I was younger, I lived in Detroit and had many Canadian friends and relatives. Crossing the border was routine though my father used to make a big deal out of "smuggling" cartons of American cigarettes to my Uncle in Windsor.

Many times I walked across the border with a backpack and virtually no money.

That is why the story of the arrest and beating of Dr Peter Watts, the Canadian Science Fiction author and Hugo Award Nominee, this last Wednesday is so disturbing. Watts is a mild mannered writer who was in the United States to help a friend with a move. He tried to cross back to Canada in Port Huron at the Bluewater Bridge Crossing. He claims that he was beaten and arrested without any apparent reason and held for 24 hours.

He was released without his car and had to walk to Canada over the bridge in a freezing snowstorm. If you have ever crossed at Port Huron, you will understand what that entailed.

Needless to say, he faces a trial, a possible jail sentence and a lifetime ban on entry into the USA as he is charged with assaulting American border guards.

To read his entire story and learn how to donate to his defense fund check out the link, HERE.

The video is of the Ensemble Modern performing "Welcome To The United States" written, arranged and conducted by Frank Zappa during the Yellow Shark Concert Series in Frankfurt, Germany in 1992.