h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My 39 year old sister, who is a recovering addict, tried to cross the US/Canada border on Friday. She has recently gotten her life straightened up, and belongs to Narcotics Anonymous.
A few months ago she met a man on the internet from Texas. They have been cchatting on a regular basis, and wanted to meet in person to explore the possibilities of a permanent relationship.
So, Thursday morning my sister packed all of her worldly goods into her car, and headed out to what she thought might be a new life for herself.
At the border crossing in our wonderful province of Saskatchewan, she was very rudely told to exit her vehicle and enter a Customs building on the US side.
Since she was not sure about the permanancy of her visit, she told the border guards that she was going to a family reunion, rather than say she was a single woman out looking for a potential mate.
The US Customs guards apparently decided that she wasn't telling the truth, ans started bullying her immediately, trying to intimidate her into a confession of some sort.
Upon entering the Customs building, 10 guards started searching her, her luggage, her car, and asking a barrage of questions of her. Her car was searched a total of four times, with all of the contents being uncerimoniously dumped out on the pavement. The seats and everything that could be removed were also taken out.
Upon inspection of her luggage, my sister was then grilled at an even more intense level.
It seems that in a backpack, in the form of "Sponge Bob Square Pants", a children's cartoon character, the ever vigilant border patrol officers found her arcrylic nail supplies, which included a couple of nail files.
The officials then demanded to know of her history of having been a child molester, and what her intentions were toward the safety of the American people with the nail files.
This line of questioning went on for some time, and my sister was beginning to hyperventilate and break down emotionally.
In due time the officials, in their great wisdom, decided to "allow" her to turn back toward home with a stern warning of behaving in an appropriate manner.
My sister, who by this time is in deep distress after havnig experienced such terror tactics, was not thinking clearly. She managed to get to a small centre with a hospital, and without knowing how, got the necessary help in the emergency ward. It still isn't clear to her how she managed to park her car across three parking stalls, while leaving her window open and her car unlocked. Thankfully none of her possessions were stolen during the night.
She has returned home, now, but is deathly afraid of what would happen to her if she spoke out about her ordeal.

My question to these wise individuals, and the infinitely superior government who did this to an innocent woman is:
"What the h*ll were you thinking?????"

Is this fallout from Canada's non-participation in the attack in the middle East?

Get some brains, people!
This is another fine and outstanding example of Dubya's policies at work.

Lady Karen

I found this again!
Karen

Needs to be said.

i've added a bit.....




My 39 year old sister, who is a recovering addict, tried to cross the US/Canada border on Friday, May 2, 2003. She has recently gotten her life straightened up, and belongs to Narcotics Anonymous.
A few months ago she met a man on the internet from Texas. They have been chatting on a regular basis, and wanted to meet in person to explore the possibilities of a permanent relationship.
So, Thursday morning my sister packed all of her worldly goods into her car, and headed out to what she thought might be a new life for herself.

At the border crossing in our wonderful province of Saskatchewan, she was very rudely told to exit her vehicle and enter a Customs building on the US side.
Since she was not sure about the permanancy of her visit, she told the border guards that she was going to a family reunion, rather than say she was a single woman out looking for a potential mate.

The US Customs guards apparently decided that she wasn't telling the truth, ans started bullying her immediately, trying to intimidate her into a confession of some sort.
Upon entering the Customs building, 10 guards started searching her, her luggage, her car, and asking a barrage of questions of her. Her car was searched a total of four times, with all of the contents being uncerimoniously dumped out on the pavement. The seats and everything that could be removed were also taken out.

Upon inspection of her luggage, my sister was then grilled at an even more intense level.
It seems that in a backpack, in the form of "Sponge Bob Square Pants", a children's cartoon character, the ever vigilant border patrol officers found her arcrylic nail supplies, which included a couple of nail files.
The officials then demanded to know of her history of having been a child molester, and what her intentions were toward the safety of the American people with the nail files.
This line of questioning went on for some time, and my sister was beginning to hyperventilate and break down emotionally.
In due time the officials, in their great wisdom, decided to "allow" her to turn back toward home with a stern warning of behaving in an appropriate manner.

My sister, who by this time is in deep distress after having experienced such terror tactics, was not thinking clearly. She managed to get to a small centre with a hospital, and without knowing how, got the necessary help in the emergency ward. It still isn't clear to her how she managed to park her car across three parking stalls, while leaving her window open and her car unlocked. Thankfully none of her possessions were stolen during the night.

She has returned home- now, but is deathly afraid of what would happen to her if she spoke out about her ordeal.

My question to these wise individuals, and the infinitely superior government who did this to an innocent woman is:
"What the h*ll were you thinking?????"

Is this fallout from Canada's refusal to participate in the war in the Middle East?

Get some brains, people!
This is another fine and outstanding example of Dubya's policies at work.

Karen

I would like it noted first that the rudeness started BEFORE my sister had made her statement of intent. She was frightened already by these people of authority.
My sister lied because she was not sure of the permanancy of her visit, and she did not want to appear to be a single woman out trolling for a potential mate. She has still never met this fellow face to face, and there is always the possibility of things not working in person. And I would also like it noted that as soon as the untruth of her intent was questioned, she immediately told the officials everything, although she was rather embarrassed. The terrorizing experience only intensified after she had told the truth, rather than becoming reasonable.

The American taxpayers must feel really safe knowing that all of their hard earned tax dollars are going toward protecting them from single women who carry Sponge Bob Square Pants backpacks and a couple of nail files.

This is not "Anti-American Paranoia". It is a legitimate question about how an ordinary Canadian citizen was treated, and why they would be treated in such a manner that would imply they were a criminal. And yet, there are real criminals in prison who are treated with far more respect, because of the bill of Human Rights.

I believe it is too bad that since 9/11 so many freedoms of ordinary people have been violated by our OWN governments, simply in the interests of protecting our continent from POTENTIAL Acts of terrorism. When a country, or countries, are forced by their own chosen policies to live in an atmosphere of fear, I would venture to say that they become not unlike those countries which they are trying to liberate from another form of terrorism.-

Well, she was lying. When you find someone who is lying and trying to enter the United States, it's time to look at them closer. Since it's a border crossing, searches can be made without a warrant or probable cause. I would have searched her and interrogated her too.

I don't know what the significance of the nail file or the backpack was. That sounds like something irrelevant that she focused on.

I'd be surprised if ten officers interrogated her. That sounds like a waste of manpower. It's reasonable to search a vehicle and then have someone else search it to make sure you didn't miss anything.

It sounds like the Customs inspectors were doing their job. There wasn't anything to this, but they had someone lying about their reason for entering the United States. While she had an innocent reason for coming here, she made it into a huge problem by her deception. The inspectors picked up on it, investigated it, and turned her away. She made a simple trip into a big problem.

Although it is hard to judge the exact sequence of events (and if you look at Karen's second account she mentions that the unpleasantness happened before the officers could have determined her sister lied), I believe the short story here is the bemoaning of the loss of civility at the border. Since 911 it is completely understandable that border guards be much more vigilante, but those of us who have lived close to the *world's longest undefended border* all our lives can still miss the friendly atmosphere that once existed. I don't believe we are talking about efficiency, just civility. I know I am treated better at airports now than at border crossings, and the reverse was once true. I can only surmise that the new attitude is seen as part of vigilance by newer, less experienced guards. Hopefully courtesy will accompany efficiency in the future.

My sister was the first one to admit to the deception. She panicked after having been rudely treated in the first place, and messed-up.
There was no need for the way she was treated.
and the guys he works with are regularly trained in different courses on how to treat someone, and even he was amazed at the absolute cruelty in which the border patrol simply "did their job".
I do believe it is an issue of civility, as zoomer reiterated. I also believe that there is a bit of "Anti-Canadian paranoia" that is happening, as a result of Canadians refusing to take part in the bombing of Iraq. I see this in the huge tarriffs placed on grain, and other Canadian exports to the States in the last couple of weeks.
I also spoke to another family who was contained in an airport in the States after a holiday in Disneyland. They took a family vacation a couple of weeks ago, and were on their way home, when a customs official discovered the youngest son had a bright blue/brilliant orange PLASTIC water pistol with the name of a famous toy company emblazoned on the side in his posession. While this family was detained, customs kept demanding to know what their terrorist affiliations were.
Although I understand the gravity of armed robbery, even with a toy weapon, I fail to understand the total lack of common sense these customs officials seem to be displaying.
I was shot at by my ex-husband last year. Some people may remember when I wrote about it. It turned out to be some sort of gun that fired a bag of chalk. But, had the missile been anything other than the bag of chalk, the trajectory was so accurate that I would have been shot in the major artery in my neck and killed.
So, I do understand the need for caution, and the need for truth.
What I don't understand is the stupidity that has been displayed by some of the officials mentioned here.
When common sense is missing, there can be no justice on either side.
Lady Karen

There are numerous tales about problems in airports lately. They're not limited to Candians. I haven't heard anyone complaining about Canada in person or on talk radio. There was a little noise a couple of months back about an official or two who made comments about President Bush that were overheard. They apologized, and I haven't heard anything about it since then.

> and the guys he works with are regularly trained in different courses on how to treat someone, and even he was amazed at the absolute cruelty in which the border patrol simply "did their job".

Cruelty? Law enforcement officers aren't the nicest people to deal with when you're the subject of an investigation. The point is to get accurate information. If being nice works, that's fine. Most of the time it doesn't. It often helps to put pressure on people to get information out of them. With more training and experience, officers can usually do this subtly. Sometimes, it has to be overt.

I care more about effectiveness than civility. Then again, I'm more of a professional style LEO than a community oriented one. It takes different styles of policing to get the job done. Receiving training on how to treat people sounds like some sort of sensitivity training. I have been through some training on cultural issues and how to deal with those issues. When it's useful, I use it. However, our primary job in law enforcement is to protect the public. We bruise feeling all the time, because the people who will harm the public don't like it when they're caught, questioned, or arrested.

As a LEO, I put people in three groups. Cops, citizens and perps. Citizens get civility. They get yes sirred and nosirred to death. Once you move into the perp category, I'll be as civil as they let me. The big thing is that they are the target of my investigation. I don't care what I have to do to gather information and if I have enough evidence, get them in custody. As long as it's legal, I don't care how they feel about it.

Gun safety is pretty important. I wrote an article on it not too long ago.

I agree with you.
And gun safety is paramount to everyone's survival
I guess there is more than one path to any given destination, and whatever route works the best is the one to take.
Lady Karen

Unfortunately the kind of person who is attracted to positions of power, whether as lowly as a security guard or as lofty as someone who can shoot another person legally is often not the sort of person who should have the job. If life was as simple as fiction, then detectives and even border guards could determine who was guilty with careful observation. Unfortunately the easiest way to ensure successs is to assume everyone is guilty or at least everyone who strays the tiniest bit from the norm. Given that the vast majority of the people dealt with will prove to be not guity, this unfortunately leads to something akin to a police state mentality. Therein lies the problem?

What I fail to understand is those who believe that having a badge gives them licence to automatically treat people as criminals, BEFORE finding out the necessary information.
A badge is NOT licence to be an @ssh*le!
I am remembering the false allegations made against me, and how I was treated as WORSE THAN a criminal, even though I was INNOCENT. And no apology was EVER given me!
Lady Karen

If you assume someone is guilty, and start looking for evidence of guilt, you're much more likely to find it. If it's the evidence isn't there then you cut them loose. That's how you find the necessary information.

Usually you can do it without being too much of an asshole, but sometimes you have to be one. Our job is to find and arrest criminals. I'm willing to do almost anything that is legal to accomplish my job, and I won't apologize for it.

My nature is to be officer friendly. I'm willing to start there. That's usually not effective. I've been taught by criminals what is and is not effective.

Fine, we'll put you in the *B* column then.

If I wanted Rambo for a security guard I would pack heat.

Fortunately I will be one of the first to die when I use reason and logic rather than force.