Wednesday, March 04, 2009

We're the Only Ones Minding Your Manners Enough

A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search. [More]
This reminds me of the time when I instructed elder feral son Uday (or was it younger feral son Qusay?) to stop doing something irritating and he came back at me with "What's the magic word?"

"Now!" I growled.

When it involves "Only Ones," it stops being funny.

Who do we think we are, anyway?

[Via Avg Joe]

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tend to have trouble hearing ORDERS from officials myself. What? What? Excuse me?
Reach for your utility belt, Batman. Dare ya.

Anonymous said...

There's a lot of people who have hearing problems. I wonder how many times people have been beat or killed by pigs and never heard what was being said.
Pig: GET ON YOUR KNEES AND YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, NOW!!!!
Citizen who is being mistaking for a criminal: Officer I'm de......
Pig: SHUTUP YOU PIECE OF SHIT GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD.
Citizen: Officer I'm stone de.....
Pig: pulls gun and blows the top of the guy's head off and puts two more into his chest area of the heart.
Big cover up by all the DA's office and the other pigs who plant drugs and a weapon on the stiff.

Anonymous said...

I have had two run-ins with agents at the border. Both times Americans. I once had a Canadian literally dismantle my car and remove all my belongings. I had long hair, Hell I had hair. Had Texas plates, was 0330 at a very remote crossing between ND and Canada, so I fit a profile. The man was so polite and professional I could not work up any resentment at all, forget anger.

After delivering the message an older friend of mine asked me to deliver to an old friend of his, I returned to the U.S. Our guy was such an overbearing pig that I lost it. Not sure of my exact words but they went something like this. "You no good prick motherfucker, try me out right Goddamn now or walk across the road and go 100 feet north and take some lessons on how to act like a man". He did not try to mess with me. I left. He never tried to search my car, or me, not even in the beginning. I arrived at his station in a good and cooperative mood. It took him less than a minute to enrage me with his absolutely disrespectful "fuck you" behavior. I do not accept it. They cannot win with me. They might win in the moment, but after that I will be the one to say when it ends.

The other time was at Port Huron, Mi. Another really rude Border Patrol agent who wanted me to break a federal law to abide by her wishes. When I refused she sent me down for "inspection".

I get there and another agent comes out to where I had parked the rig. I opened the door, turned sideways in the seat so I could talk to him. I told him, "I don't know what you need to do, but I'll help anyway I can, except I can't break the seal on the trailer. If you want to look in there, you will have to break it, document it and place one of yours on it. Other than that, what can I do to help?"

He immediately started screaming at me and trying to count coup. I tried to explain to him about the federal law violation that the agent at the gates wasn't aware of and that she wanted me to violate it. He didn't want to hear it and kept counting coup.

At that point I got down and started moving toward him, he reached for his 10mm, tipoff that he was a dandy as they weren't standard issue. I told him, "If you touch that pistol I will kill you. No matter what happens to me you won't be here to see it."

He was contemplating that, and I could tell he was weighing his chances, when my son comes running around the front of the truck. I saw him out of the corner of my eye and asked "What are you doing up son?" He replied, "I heard the way he was talking to you Daddy, and I knew that wouldn't last long. If you kill him, I want to have my clothes on when the rest of them get here. I don't want to go to jail naked."

It was funny in a way, the asshole had been weighing his chances of downing me before I could get him. At my son's words, he chilled right out. He started talking to me like I was human and then asked me what happened at the gate. I told him. He said "I should have known it was her, she's a pain in the ass."

At that point I lost it again. I was very angry and asked him why then he thought he should come out here and treat me like shit without having a damn clue, not even a lie about what had happened. I was really tearing into him, when Christopher said,"Dad, he's trying to apologize, cool down."

So I did. We went on our way with the dandy's blessings.

Don't know how I lived this long. Regardless however long I live or don't it will be as a man. I marked another year today,btw.

Oh, something I forgot to say about the Canadian border agent. After he had looked at everything and was replacing seats and panels and belongings, I went over to help. He said, "No sir, I took it all out, I'll put it all back. Why don't you go inside and enjoy the coffee I made?" Him, I can respect. There is no doubt in my mind that had I been breaking a law I would be arrested, but until he had proof of it, I was human in his eyes. And he put everything back just as it had been. Damn Canadians are nice.

Anonymous said...

Check out his daughter, Menina

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Amerika.

Anonymous said...

Comment on AvgJoe's commnet. In the police training video simulation "Shoot / Don't Shoot" from 25 years ago, the officer under training holding a dummy weapon that records trigger pulls and simulates recoil approaches a man and commands that he put his hands in the air. The man reaches for his back pants pocket, removes an unrecognizable black object, and raises it in front of him. The officer under training must decide whether he must shoot the unresponsive or uncooperative man. Many do so at some point, and are horrified to learn that the black object is a wallet holding the white card printed in large black letters "I am a deaf / mute....".

A few years ago I tried an updated version of the simulator at a demonstration by the Hillsbrough County sheriff's Department at the Florida State Fair in Tampa. The scenario was a hostage situation, with a lone gunman holding the hostage by the neck and while the gunman extended his right arm holding the gun while moving left to right and turning. The deputy chided me for waiting too long to fire, and not hitting the gunman with my first two shots, stating that other officers on the scene could have been killed by my hesitation and inaccuracy. I asked the deputy to replay the recording with my points of impact highlighted. I pointed out that I began firing when I had a solid backstop for the rounds and a clear shot (I did not attempt to do a head shot while the gunman and hostage were head on), shot the hand holding the pistol twice (which the simulation did not score), then proceeded to dump three rounds into the side of the gunman's head forward of his right ear. I explained that I was trained a long time ago to be accountable for every round I fired, and that shooting innocent bystanders was totally unacceptable, even if it results in an officer getting shot. I was informed that HCSD did not follow that protocol. I told him that was noticeable.

Anonymous said...

"I once had a Canadian literally dismantle my car and remove all my belongings. I had long hair, Hell I had hair. Had Texas plates, was 0330 at a very remote crossing between ND and Canada, so I fit a profile.

[...]"


My younger brother was eighteen years old when he crossed into the States at Windsor/Detroit. This kid was on a schedule as an NCO-level ramrod on touring staging and rigging teams and doing good work. U.S. C/BP tore-down his Plymouth Horizon to seats laying in the parking lot, etc., took four hours doing it, and left him and two mates to put it back together.

Naturally, it was all stupid and quite un-called for. (And Bryan, one of the most placid souls I ever knew, just rolled hard with it and made the next gig.)

Here's how far we've come since 1988: he drove away that day with twenty-four thousand dollars in cash. Part of the team payroll. Go try that today. Good damn-ass luck with that.