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Writer Peter Watts Sentenced; No Jail Time

shadowbearer writes "SF writer Peter Watts, a Canadian citizen, whose story we have read about before in these pages, was sentenced three days ago in a Port Huron, MI court. There's not a lot of detail in the story, and although he is still being treated like a terrorist (cannot enter or pass through the US, DNA samples) he was not ordered to do any time in jail, was freed, and has returned home to his family. The judge in the case was, I believe, as sympathetic as the legal system would allow him to be."

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  1. Re:What about the cops? by walshy007 · · Score: 1, Troll

    Appears I missed the 'it is sad' part, but read all else, my mistake, makes you not like it but yet you still endorse it, odd.

    For the second point, police officers do not need to wait until someone takes action against them.

    So it is acceptable then to use force/pepper spray/taser on otherwise peaceful people? This is what I had issue with. If a person is calm, non violent and not running away, how can force be justified?

    It promotes the mindset of 'beat up first, oh shit, sorry guy' which seems fine and dandy to you, oh well, perhaps some day you will be subjected to it yourself.

    Getting beaten up for stepping out of your car comes under this same guise, if he was running away restraint could be justified, but a beating for stepping out of a car? come on.