SF Author Dr. Peter Watts Gets Arrested at the US Border, Thrown In Detention, Now Facing Charges

Posted by on 2009/12/12


by Irma Arkus

over at BoingBoing, hot news item is that Dr. Peter Watts, a scifi Hugo nominee, has been detained at the US border for reasons unknown.

After border patrol decided to conduct a search of his rented vehicle, Watts faced physical abuse by the officers, was stripped half-naked and spent almost a day in a cold detenion cell.

Seizure of his personal computer, flash drive, and even his paper notepad was explained as a way to halt terrorism: “even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots,” explained Peter in his own words.

After being harassed and abused by the border officials, and posted bond for his release, Dr. Watts was sent out in his shirt, in a midst of a cold Ontario snow-storm.

Now, Dr. Watts faces charges of assault against a federal officer. How questioning a search amounts to an assault is still unknown, but one thing is for sure, Dr. Watts will need a lot of financial support to dispute the charges in Michigan.

To help with his situation, please send your support funds via PayPal to donate@rifters.com

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  • wil.red

    holy shit. this stuff is getting rougher and rougher every day. border patrol generally has too much power and too little brains. and their power seems to be growing. there are always excuses and made up charges to stick anyone with whatever they want.

  • generalcastro

    I feel shame. and rage. Border has been more and more agressive and forceful but this just reached a new level of outrageousness. It is one thing to recognize that law enforcement officials generally take great liberties to “uphold the law” and my fave “protect themselves” but to just bash someone for asking why their car is getting ransacked is a new low. I guess not even new, but rather old and unspoken low.

  • jenney

    you can say that about any law enforcement agency, but border in particular has been empowered to such an extent that they can do NO WRONG. PERIOD. That is troubling since we presume that laws and rights apply, yet for some reason, these guys are waaay above any dispute or conversation.

  • Anonymous

    we don’t have ontario snow storms in the us, you must be talking about canada.
    either way, that is absolute bullshit and im horrified about what happened.

  • gargantuamirabilis

    thank you for reminding us that arbitrary, imaginary lines on the map divide that precious space between celsius and fahrenheit temperatures. yeey Canada!

  • johnp

    this is total bullshit. borders have been beefed up for some reason to allow everyone to be harrassed by the patrols. nothing like seeing those donut filled faces demanding vague answers to vague questions. can’t believe that these guys are da law, cause they all look to me like potential criminals. of course its shameful what happened to Watts, but these events happen every day in Canada, US and all over the world. and we are doing NOTHING to stop it.