Please help Peter Watts

[annathepiper]

A lot of you reading this will probably see this posted elsewhere, but just in case you haven’t, word is going around the Net today about how Canadian SF writer Peter Watts was stopped at the US/Canadian border on his way back into Canada, beaten by border guards, and released in his shirtsleeves into the middle of a snowstorm. Various pertinent links include:

• Watts’ direct account of the matter
• John Scalzi’s post at the Whatever
• Post at Making Light

I’d previously downloaded the four Creative Commons copies of Peter’s novels from his site, and have elected to send him a Paypal donation for roughly the amount I’d have paid for these books if I’d bought them in paperback in a store. If like me you are deeply appalled that this happened to him, I would encourage you to consider sending him whatever you can spare as he gets a defense fund together.

More formal efforts to get something organized for him are underway, but in the meantime, he has a Paypal donation button here. If you use it, please also send him a separate note specifying that you’re donating to his legal fund since the button was originally set up for veterinary bills for his cats.

Thanks, folks. Let’s hope this works out for the best.

ETA 12/12/09 11:47am: Peter has posted again with an update, specifically touching on how a Michigan newspaper story on the incident is telling a version of events that contradicts what he said happened. He’s clearing up a couple other points as well, and voicing his thanks to folks who have given him support.

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Comments

[spunbutterfly.livejournal.com]

With my own experiences at the border, I don't put this kind of behavior past the CBP. Warranted search or no, and it brings to light the fact that the CBP, supposedly, does not have to tell you your rights, or why they're searching your car or anything.

This is, also, unfortunately, not the way they treat ONLY non-Americans. They treat Americans the same way. Because my now fiance was denied entry into the US once (due to, what I believe was an overzealous new CBP agent), I was also detained for hours whenever trying to return to the country, and they refused to tell me what I had done wrong and that it was 'dumb luck'.

Dumb luck my ass. My third consecutive week of being detained, I made a stink and demanded to speak to a supervisor. It got resolved.

I've reposted on my facebook, lj, and twittered about it with the hashtag: #peterwatts. Hopefully something good comes of this. :(

[annathepiper]

This was US border guards as far as I know, not Canadian ones. Comments in the posts I've linked to indicate that exit searches at the crossing in question are not unheard of.

[spunbutterfly.livejournal.com]

Yes, my experiences have all been with US border guards.

[annathepiper]

Oh okay, my apologies, I misread you. Thanks for chiming in, regardless! It's important to get this stuff said.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. Watts is one of my favourite hard SF writers, and the guy who introduced me to the concept of RNA with Starfish. I had the pleasure of meeting him this summer, and he was such a cool guy.

Beaten? Good grief. If he was on his way back into the country, they'd have been Canadian guards. He's Canadian. Why the heck would they beat him?

I'm stunned.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

At least, I think he's Canadian, or at least a Canadian resident.

[annathepiper]

He's Canadian, yeah, as far as I know. Also, it was US border guards that did this, specifically; this was apparently an exit search. Comments in the Scalzi and Making Light posts I've linked to indicate that exit searches at that particular crossing are not unheard of.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Since when do border guards do exit searches? That's never, ever happened to me. (Entry searches by the Canadian service, sure, because I was a young woman travelling alone who'd managed to go a whole week in the States without doing any shopping and thus had nothing to declare, so they figured I was a mule, but not an exit search.)

Something is well and truly off here.

[annathepiper]

I see pecunium has addressed this question below! So I'll defer to him.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Okay, more research tells me the border guards in question were American. What on Earth? They're conducting exit searches?

(And yes, getting out of the car was stupid, but the response to it seems very disproportionate based on the information I've got.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The US has, for more than a decade, taken advantage of their right to perform exit searches, the system is, sort of, random (it has a number of profile flags, one of them is rental car).

Getting out of the car was only sort of stupid. It's, to quote Digby (http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gatesgate-by-digby-i-have-been.html)

Now, on a practical, day to day level, it's hard to argue that being argumentative with a cop is a dangerous thing. They have guns. They can arrest you and can cost you your freedom if they want to do it badly enough. They can often get away with doing violence on you and suffer no consequences. You are taking a risk if you provoke someone with that kind of power, no doubt about it.

Indeed, it is very little different than exercising your right of free speech to tell a gang of armed thugs to go fuck themselves. It's legal, but it's not very smart. But that's the problem isn't it? We shouldn't have to make the same calculations about how to behave with police as we would with armed criminals. The police are supposed to be the good guys who follow the rules and the law and don't expect innocent citizens to bow to their brute power the same way that a street gang would do. The police are not supposed wield what is essentially brute force on the entire population.

The sad thing is so many of us don't press them to remember they have been trained, and are well paid, to deal with argumentative people. Rather they decide to play judge, jury and executioner of sentence for "contempt of cop", and when the situtation (as with this one) is witnessed, add insult to injury by using the power they wield as the gatekeeper of charges to place the victim of their vigilantism at peril of liberty, loss of civil rights, and/or merely money.

For being one of those willing to question that arrogation of authority, Mr. Watts deserves all praise, and all the support we can give him. He actually spoke truth to power, and the power has to be made aware that we agree with truth. It matters more that US citizens speak against it than that Canada complain.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the education on exit searches - I didn't know that. :)

I do think it was not a bright thing to do, but I also think that it's very, very sad that it was not a bright thing to do. I also don't believe for a moment that Mr. Watts committed assault - like I said, I have met the gentleman in question, and, while I don't know him well obviously, nothing about him struck me as anything less than exceedingly patient and polite.

[annathepiper]

Thank you for chiming in on this. Much appreciated.

[angelina-zooma.livejournal.com]

Gah! And my boyfriend wonders why crossing the border makes me nervous! He figures that just because you're legally 'in the right' everything's ok, but my opinion is: Just because randomly harassing and beating a guy is illegal and may be punished later, it doesn't mean it won't happen in the first place.

I'm also confused about the exit search thing, I've been crossing the border 1-2 times a month for the last 4 years and I've never seen an exit search before. Crazyness!

[mathmuffin.livejournal.com]

My wife and I were thinking of visiting friends in upstate New York at the beginning of our Christmas vacation and then cutting across southern Ontario to visit family in Michigan. We would be crossing into Michigan at Port Huron. Given these circumstances, we will have to consider a different route. The best possible case is that those nasty border patrol officers will be pulled from duty, which could lead to lengthy lines.

[annathepiper]

Changing routes sounds wise under the circumstances!

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I am flabbergasted. Shocked. Confused as all hell. Why the fuck would they do that to him? Just because they could?? It's totally insane!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, which is pretty much the reaction of the entire SF community. There's an article in a Michigan paper that contradicts his version of the story, too, adding fuel to the fire--the article claims for example that he was leaving Canada, not entering it. It's one great big clusterfuck of awful. :(

He's posted again to specifically call out the contradictory news story, as well as to clear up a couple other points.