A Canadian traveling to the US was recently instructed to turn off the motor of his car by the US Border Guard. He responded by counter-instructing the US Border Guard to say "please". They each repeated their respective demand, back-and-forth, a couple of times. Then the Canadian was pepper-sprayed by the US Border Guard.
Who do you side with on this one?
My verdict: the Border guard.
The rationale:
* Crossing into the US (or any other foreign country) is a privilege, not a right.
* Border crossings in the age of terrorism are not places to fool around. A US border guard faces imminent threats daily. The Canadian may just be making a fuss, or he may be involved in creating a distraction while someone else does something much more serious. The border guard is responsible for resolving the situation rapidly and effectively. His safety, or the safety of his colleagues, may depend on it.
What do you think?
* * *
For what it's worth, I once advised my wife to use the border crossing line up as an opportunity to get rid of some car garbage in a nearby waste bin. When we got up to the border guard, he told us to never, ever, get out of the car again while in line at a border crossing -- we could be shot.
This was just after 9-11. My wife was not amused.
We keep our garbage to ourselves, now.
Another time, we had a huge bag of fresh dog food confiscated. We had repackaged it into an airtight plastic container, and could not prove that it was made in the USA (which it was). Homeland Security -- keeping the USA free from meat products which may contain illicit pork, lamb or beef! The guy dumped it into a huge container. The Port Huron, MI guys must specialize in illicit dog food confiscation. I hope they don't get paid by the pound...
And that's the way the border-crossing Ball bounces.
6 comments:
I agree with you. That Canadian was an arrogant idiot. I live close to the border and cross weekly. I show Respect, always, even if I am not shown it. In most cases the guards are polite and matter of fact. The American ones that is. Many of the Canadian guards are touchy though.
Personally, I'm alway very polite to anyone with a sidearm...
I'm always polite as well, but it must be said that US customs officers have always been just about the rudest and nastiest in the world.
The only customs service I've ever encountered that compares to the US for sheer icy unpleasantness was from the old East Germany.
I figure it must be part of their strategy: be nasty and testy and then see how people react, because for the most part Americans are really quite nice.
Not too many people can say they've had anything to do with an East Germany border crossing.
The last time I crossed the border was at Peace Arch in BC, in 2003. The guard asked me the reason for my trip: 'to see Martin Amis at Elliot Bay books in Seattle', I said. "Pull over and head inside" he said.
A very sly guard inside asked me what Amis' latest book, 'Yellow Dog' was about...I said, 'the obsenification of life in late 20th century America...' he half twitched towards his sidearm, half visualized the word 'faggot.' I was told to bring a passport next time, as Canada apparently hands out birth certificates and driver's liscenses in 'cereal boxes.'
He was rude. Put I preferred it to the Canadian guard on the return trip that just waved me through.
If you can't have the decency to say 'yes sir, no sir' and obey simple commands, the authorities should beat the living shit out of you, plain and simple. I'm no threat to the USA, and neither are 90% of the other people out there. But we don't see the remaining 10% on a daily basis.
Too many people in our societies behave like they've never been punched in the face. The pepper-sprayed one from Coquitlam got a private tutorial about the real world the other day, and in my books, that's aces.
Personally, I'd like to see the Coquitlam RCMP track down this idiot and pepper spray him again for embarrassing Canada.
I crossed the East German border in 1977, and it was a scary experience, armed and icily unpleasant guards everywhere. They made even the rudest American or Canadian border guard look lie a sweetheart in comparison.
Anyways, this pepper-sprayee ignored a direct order three times and decided to be a smart-aleck instead. What did he expect? So what if the guard didn't say 'please' - it's not a social get-together!
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