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The Regime’s Heroic Border Guards in Action

By William Grigg on December 11, 2009

Crossing the border of a totalitarian state — in either direction — is an experience fraught with visceral anxiety.

Finding himself in the unwanted company of humorless, heavily armed goons of dubious competence and abysmal intelligence, the traveler is vividly aware that he can be arrested, imprisoned, beaten, or even shot at whim.

The best thing to do in such circumstances, travelers are told, is to assume a posture of utter servility, meekly and quietly enduring whatever indignity inflicted on them until they are safely through the border checkpoint.

Judging by the recent behavior of the valiant cadres of the  heroic Border Guards Directorate, it becomes clear that the U.S. is rapidly descending into undisguised totalitarianism.

Last Tuesday (December 8), Dr. Peter Watts, a Hugo-nominated science fiction author from Toronto, was severely beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested, interrogated, and otherwise abused by Border Patrol agents.

“If you buy into the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics, there must be a parallel universe in which I crossed the US/Canadian border without incident last Tuesday,” writes Dr. Watts. “In some other dimension, I was not waved over by a cluster of border guards who swarmed my car like army ants for no apparent reason; or perhaps they did, and I simply kept my eyes downcast and refrained from asking questions.”

“Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on,” Dr. Watts continues:

“I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, sh*t-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three f*****g hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my f****g paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario’s first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night.”

“In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face,” he concludes. “But that is not this universe.”

In the universe we’re sentenced to live in, Dr. Watts, like many, many other innocent people, has been charged with “assaulting” the sacred personage of a federal officer for the offense of being on the receiving end of a criminal assault by that officer and his cohorts (remember, the bold and brave “men” in law enforcement always operate in packs).

This kind of arbitrary, lawless violence can occur anytime anyone — including a U.S. citizen — encounters the Border Patrol. And the danger is not limited to the border: Witness the experience of Pastor Steven Anderson of Tempe, Arizona, who was tased, beaten, and arrested by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint set up dozens of miles inside the southern border with Mexico.

Iris Cooper of Patagonia, Arizona recently had an unpleasant — if less violent — run-in with the Border Patrol. While driving to school at the Pima Medical Institute in Tucson, she realized that she had forgotten her books. Spying a Border Patrol checkpoint in the near distance, Cooper decided to take the risk of turning around to retrieve her books, knowing that this action might provoke suspicion.

Stop and think about what it says about our circumstances that avoiding a warrantless checkpoint is considered “probable cause” for the purpose of conducting a search.

Sure enough, Border Patrol agents and police pursued and stopped Cooper. She was pulled from her car, handcuffed, and detained for a half an hour while a K-9 unit conducted a warrantless search of her vehicle.

Despite being handcuffed and forbidden to leave, Cooper was told that she wasn’t under arrest. The handcuffs, she was told, were “part of the procedure.” This was a lie, of course: An arrest occurs any time a citizen is detained by any law enforcement officer. This includes traffic stops.

According to the Border Patrol, the increasingly theoretical protections offered by the Fourth Amendment are subject to “exceptions” for the purpose of border enforcement. This creates what some have called a “Constitution-free zone” within a 100-mile-wide strip surrounding the continental U.S. As the ACLU has pointed out, two-thirds of the U.S. population resides within that formal “Constitution-free zone.”

As I’ve noted before, the border enforcement regime supposedly intended to keep foreigners out can also be used to  pen us in. Many conservatives — including some who apparently despise foreigners more than they cherish freedom — forgot that principle during the reign of Bush the Dumber. Perhaps their perspective will change now that Barack the Blessed is on the throne, and the walls are closing in.

Source

December 19, 2009 - Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular | ,

11 Comments »

  1. Duhmerica, ain’t it grand!

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    bosunj's avatar Comment by bosunj | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  2. My wife and I are 42 and 52, respectively. Upon returning from a trip to Mexico last year, we were yelled at, asked the same questions over and over…separated from each other and questioned again….our van emptied, our guitars x-rayed, and generally treated like criminals. We went back to Oregon, sold our house, closed our business and now live in Mexico. Screw the US ! I felt like I was in the Soviet Union of he 50s or something. America is toast…the hatemongers and thugs run the country now…

    Like

    Vic's avatar Comment by Vic | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  3. All your “Bill of Rights” are belong to us!

    Seriously, folks, policemen are indeed your friends, as I was taught in grade school.

    Everyone knows that moss grows on the North side of a policeman, so if you’re ever lost all you need do is find a policeman and look for the moss!

    Good luck my friends, for you will most surely need it!!!

    Like

    Emusculator in Absentia's avatar Comment by Emusculator in Absentia | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  4. We shall all become Palestinians, checkpoints et al. Who do you think is running the “Homeland”?

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    Tony Birch's avatar Comment by Tony Birch | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  5. Thanks to that horrid little man George the “no conspiracy theories” Bush and his fellow false-flag enablers(Cheney, Myers, Blair, Chertoff, etc.), the border crossings between the U.S., Canada and Mexico resemble the 1950’s crossings between East and West Germany.

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    Iain Yuile's avatar Comment by Iain Yuile | December 20, 2009 | Reply

    • I crossed the border between East and West Germany more than once back in the 70s and 80s. It wasn’t as bad as it is now here in the US.

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      starviego's avatar Comment by starviego | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  6. Welcome to the New Zionist Soviet States of Amerika. Comrades Rahm Emanuel and Michael Chertoff welcome all comrades to bask in the glory of the Federal Homeland. Only terrorists, gun owners, constitutionalists and those who think for themselves are not welcome!

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    Adam Zettler's avatar Comment by Adam Zettler | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  7. The police are just another, albeit well armed and organized, gang on the street to be avoided whenever possible. The next time I cross a border of the united states, it will be to permanently leave the united states to make a home elsewhere.

    Like

    bLaKouT's avatar Comment by bLaKouT | December 20, 2009 | Reply

    • Best thing you’ll ever do. Did it 16 years ago and never regretted it. Quality of life is so much better when you’re away from the constant oppressive silly shit Duhmerican’ts call normal.

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      bosunj's avatar Comment by bosunj | December 20, 2009 | Reply

  8. One thing that is nearly always mentioned in regard to these incidents of police/official fascist thuggery is the “but not all cops are like that…” argument. I really have to question both the veracity and competence of such a statement, for, if that were indeed true, the glaringly obvious response MUST be: “Then were the hell are/were they?”
    The fact that this vicious behaviour not only continues but in fact seems to be increasing all the time, should certainly lead anyone with even a modicum of intelligence to seriously doubt that there are ANY ‘good’ police officers left at all…or – if by some quirk of fate there are – then why don’t they say or DO something to help?
    Every day I thank my lucky stars and the fortuitous circumstances of my parent’s wisdom in choosing for my birthplace a country far removed from the USA…Any promise your nation once had as a beacon of hope has long since degenerated into a fear-laden, mistrustful, brutal, violent and cynical litany of oppression and woe.
    When are Americans going to say “no more” and fight back? You fought a war to win your independence (albeit by replacing a foreign controlling elite with a home-grown one…) from a nation across the ocean that you believed was placing an intolerable burden on your right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’, that, in retrospect, was a hell of a lot more benign than the totalitarian blight that governs you today… if the oppressive nature of British rule resulted in such a dramatic struggle for freedom, then what will it take for an even more dramatic response to rid you of the cancer that grows ever more pernicious nowadays?
    You can still show the world that your guiding principles are more than just “a goddamn piece of paper”, and lead by example, but time is definitely running out. If the USA succumbs so easily – and docilely – to this new world order totalitarianism, there really isn’t much hope for those who are left!

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    Mike B.'s avatar Comment by Mike B. | December 22, 2009 | Reply

  9. […] Read more… Related Posts:Palestinians Protest Egyptian Steel BarrierVenezuela Blows Up Border Bridges with ColombiaIraqi Troops Mass Along Iran BorderMarch of the Wardens: Town Hall 'Enforcers' With Police Powers Increase by a Fifth in a YearBorder Patrols to Keep Criminals out of Lancashire Book Mark it-> del.icio.us | Reddit | Slashdot | Digg | Facebook | Technorati | Google | StumbleUpon | Window Live | Tailrank | Furl | Netscape | Yahoo | BlinkList» Post Ad Purchase:  Intext Link Comments [0]Digg it!Facebook […]

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    Pingback by The Regime’s Heroic Border Guards in Action | January 5, 2010 | Reply


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