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• 1. The incident occured as Watts was exiting the US. He was stopped by US border patrol for a random "exit inspection"
• 2. Watts initially got out of the car and requested an explanation. At that point, one of the border patrol officers told him to get back in the car. He did so
• 3. An officer named Beaudry rushed over to the scene, got into the car with Watts, struck him in the face and told him to get out.
• 4. Watts exited the car and Beaudry ordered him to get to the ground.
• 5. Watts did not comply, but rather demanded an explanation.
• 6. Beaudry pepper-spayed watts and threatened him with a baton. At that point Watts lay down, was handcuffed, and placed under arrest.

At no point did Watts engage in a physical confrontation with the CBP officers. Upon cross-examination the "choking" accusation and the "aggressive stance" accusations were shown to have been fabricated.
The conviction stemmed solely from point #5 Here are a couple of post-trial juror statements. One was posted on Watts own site. The other was posted as a comment to the Port Huron report on the verdict; see
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20100319/NEWS01/3190308/Jury-remains-out-in-Watts-trial?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:e3d49247-c265-47a6-9721-5713e32cc7ed



As a member of the jury that convicted Mr. Watts today, I have a few comments to make. The jury’s task was not to decide who we liked better. The job of the jury was to decide whether Mr. Watts “obstructed/resisted” the custom officials. Assault was not one of the charges. What it boiled down to was Mr. Watts did not follow the instructions of the customs agents. Period. He was not violent, he was not intimidating, he was not stopping them from searching his car. He did, however, refuse to follow the commands by his non compliance. He’s not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination. The customs agents escalted the situation with sarcasm and miscommunication. Unfortunately, we were not asked to convict those agents with a crime, although, in my opinion, they did commit offenses against Mr. Watts. Two wrongs don’t make a right, so we had to follow the instructions as set forth to us by the judge.



Peter,

I believe your description of the trial and deliberations is more accurate than you could know. As a non-conformist and “libertarian” (who has had some experiences not unlike yours) I was not comfortable with my vote, but felt deep inside that it was consistent with the oath we took as jurors. I believe nearly all the jurors searched for a legitimate reason to vote differently. In the end it came down to the question “Was the law broken?”. While I would much rather have a beer and discussion with you than Officer B. I never the less felt obligated to vote my conscience. I also believe most, if not all, the jurors sincerely hope that you are handled with a great degree of leniency, we, unfortunately have no say in that matter.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091212/NEWS01/912120305/1002/Writer-faces-assault-charge

Sure, there you go. I was perhaps wrong about the "repeatedly refused" -- the article does just say that he refused to listen to the border patrol. That and the allegation that Watts CHOKED a border office are from the police report, according to the above article, so yeah, it is a little different from what Doctorow and Watts have claimed.

Since it doesn't appear you were familiar with that same information, I think it makes the rest of your post need some reassessing.

He wasn't arrested until he asked questions of authority

No, he wasn't arrested until after he yelled at the officers, refused to listen to them, got physical and ultimately choked one of them (according to the police report at least).

The non-ideal situation is that the US is so screwed up that we not only expect such Gestapo tactics, but defend them.

Abuse of authority should never be tolerated--I haven't yet seen it here. Let's get an investigation, gets the facts, and see what comes out of it. I personally think it's equally screwed up that so many people are defending someone who allegedly CHOKED a border officer.

I would love to have been there to see what actually happened.

No, but that's not what we're talking about. There's no political statement here. This guy was beaten to within an inch of his life for doing something that shouldn't be a problem. We're not talking about officers that restrained a guy trying to do something illegal to make a statement. We're talking about power hungry abusive assholes beating an innocent man in a customs line.

Where's the link to all of this information? "Beaten to within an inch of his life" and for doing "something that shouldn't be a problem"? Where exactly are you getting this information.

As I've said multiple times, the facts are not yet know. What DOES seem absolutely apparent is that Doctorow is very politically minded and this guy seems to be as well (read today's profanity-laced update).

Alternatively you could try checking other news source's than Watts' friend's blog.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091212/NEWS01/912120305/1002/Writer-faces-assault-charge

[After angry words were said...]

Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers "and became aggressive toward officers," Jones said.

Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts "choked" an officer during the struggle.

Jones said Port Huron police were called to the scene after the scuffle and took Watts into custody.

A little bit different.

I'll refrain judgement before saying such ludicrous things as "We're talking about power hungry abusive assholes beating an innocent man in a customs line" when you obviously can't even be bothered to conceive that something else could be going on (or have bothered to actually read other articles).

I found a news article explaining that Mr. Watts was selected randomly for a "secondary Customs inspection" and that he was belligerent about it. I don't know what actually happened, but there's always another side to the story and, in typical Slashdot fashion, it doesn't appear anyone's considered what the other side to this one is. For instance, his being half-naked in a cell is likely because he was subdued by pepper spray, which has a tendency to get into your clothing and make you want it off of your body. I have seen one individual tear off his sweatshirt pro wrestler-style in the dead of a Montana winter night because of the pepper spray in the shirt.

It's quite likely that the US border agents went too far, but it's less likely that they beat up a Canadian celebrity just for sport.

I think I'd like to hear both sides of the story before I decide.

It's not really the full tale, but the Port Huron Times-Herald did speak to a police Captain. Their article is here: http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/1002/NEWS01/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle

Yeah and from my brief look at his account he was doing his level-headed best to be a problem. He may have been stupid and thought he wasn't being a problem, but to be quite honest, he was being a problem.

After attempting to decipher his oh so cutesy "Many worlds" "other timeline" post I have determined the following...

1) He got out of his car. When dealing with LE of any kind that is a no-no in most circumstances, with exceptions, most of which do not apply if you're going to play lawyer.

2) He decided to play lawyer, and persisted in doing so when a clear signal was sent that playing lawyer wasn't going to fly. In other words he asked why he was being stopped and did not get an answer and was told to get back in his car. Perry-fuckin'-Mason here figured that maybe the agent had shit in his ears and didn't hear him so he decided to not get back in the car as he was asked to do and then proceeded to play lawyer a second time.

3) Perry-fuckin'-Mason was then allegedly punched in the face, allegedly pepper sprayed, allegedly had the shit kicked out of him, and was allegedly tossed wet and half naked into a holding cell for three hours. All of this alleged punching, alleged spraying, and alleged shit-kicking makes me think there is something that Perry-fuckin'-Mason is neglecting to tell us.

Ah here we go... in the comments is a link with some information from the authorities... one Captain Jim Jones of the Port Huron police.

Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers “and became aggressive toward officers,” Jones said.

Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts “choked” an officer during the struggle.

See? Now that's far more readable then the "Along some other timeline" bullshit Perry-fuckin'-Mason posted on his blog.

Note the "officers attempted to handcuff him" part. That means that he was going to be restrained and possibly arrested. (Don't need any wanna-be-lawyers here saying "But they can't handcuff you unless they're going to arrest you." because actually they can handcuff you without arresting you.)

Now note the "At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers" part. This part means, that even if they had just been going to handcuff him until they got things sorted out, well that's not happening now. Nope. Now he's absolutely going to jail. Period. The end. Because he done fucked up.

Once they pull the handcuffs out then they've made a decision that tolerance for non-compliance on your part is finished. If you continue with non-compliance once those handcuffs are in their hands then the the handcuffs are going on you with or without your cooperation. Whether it goes easy or goes hard rests entirely with you at that point.

If at any point in the process of resisting restraint Perry-fuckin'-Mason puts his hands on an officer then he's seriously escalated his offense.

Perry-fuckin'-Mason here made his choices and he doesn't like the results of his choices so he's blaming the border agents for his asshattery.

I really hope there's some video of this. I'd like to see how Perry-fuckin'-Mason will spin it.

He had better hope they do NOT have tape - slashdot as usual goes flying off the left-wing "I hate authority" end of the cliff without checking the ohter side of the story.

Science fiction writer charged after bridge struggle

Watts was crossing into Michigan from Point Edward when he was selected at random for a secondary Customs inspection. Watts exited his vehicle “angrily” and border officers began checking the black sport utility vehicle he was driving, Jones said. Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers “and became aggressive toward officers,” Jones said. Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts choked an officer during the struggle.

Seems slashdotters do not have all the data, and the author may have been more than a bit untruthful - as well as Doctrow's quoting of him. Next time wait for at least the oither side to give its account. And in this case they probably have video to back it up.

Here's a recently posted article that includes the government's side of the story. It seems to back up Watt's account that the border guards overreacted violently. "A Canadian science fiction writer is facing a felony charge after police said he assaulted a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer and resisted arrest at the Blue Water Bridge. But the writer, Peter Watts of Toronto, wrote on his blog that he was “punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, sh*t-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three (profanity deleted) 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.).” Neither Watts nor U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials returned phone calls Friday seeking comment about the Tuesday incident. Port Huron police Capt. Jim Jones would not provide the Times Herald with a copy of a police report about the incident Friday. But, he read the police report to a reporter. Jones said Watts was crossing into Michigan from Point Edward when he was selected at random for a secondary Customs inspection. Watts exited his vehicle “angrily” and border officers began checking the black sport utility vehicle he was driving, Jones said. Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers “and became aggressive toward officers,” Jones said. Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts “choked” an officer during the struggle. " http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/1002/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20091211/NEWS01/91211010/1002/Science+fiction+writer+charged+after+bridge+struggle

"Jones said Watts was crossing into Michigan from Point Edward when he was selected at random for a secondary Customs inspection. Watts exited his vehicle "angrily" and border officers began checking the black sport utility vehicle he was driving, Jones said.

Border officers ordered Watts back into the vehicle, and when he refused, officers attempted to handcuff him, Jones said. At that point, Watts began to resist and pull away from the officers "and became aggressive toward officers," Jones said.

Jones said a border officer used pepper spray to subdue Watts. Jones said Watts "choked" an officer during the struggle. "