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Canadian demands decorum, gets shot with pepper spray instead

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Those silly Canadians. They come to our border and expect to be "welcomed" into our nation, not realizing that we have an issue here with illegal immigrants. Our Border Patrol is not the welcome wagon, but rather the guardian system for our border. Now if Canadians want to be welcomed to American soil, they need to cross over from the south, then we'll give them jobs, educations and healthcare. What the heck are those Canucks thinking trying to come in from the north?
Cdn who wanted 'please' gets pepper spray from U.S. border guard
20 hours ago


VANCOUVER, B.C. — A British Columbian man has learned the hard way that you don't ask a U.S. border guard to be polite when he asks you to turn off your vehicle's engine.

Desiderio Fortunato, of Coquitlam, B.C., asked the guard to say please and instead received a face full of pepper spray.

"I just said please," Fortunato explained Thursday. "He said 'get out of the car or I spray you' and ... I thought he was just trying to scare me off or something and I was pepper sprayed from a foot or two away."

He said it was then that five or six border guards jumped on him, placed him in handcuffs and questioned him for three hours last Monday afternoon.

"I felt like I was attacked by a bunch of wolves. They jumped on me, they threw me to the ground and they kneeled on me." But he said the worst part was the pepper spray burning his eyes, and every time he rubbed his eyes he made the problem even worse. Fortunato, 54, was born in Portugal, but became a Canadian citizen almost 30 years ago.

During questioning from U.S. officials, he said, the first thing they wanted to know was where he was born. He said the entire demeanour of the officials changed when he told them he was of Portuguese origin.

"Their shields dropped slightly down. It was like you know: OK he's a Westerner, OK he's not a Muslim, OK he's a Christian, he's one of us. That's what I read (from them)."

Fortunato noted that the motto of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to "serve the American public with vigilance, integrity and professionalism."

"What is that, that's what they pledge. I'm just asking for a please, and I get pepper spray in the face, and of course their argument is you must comply with anything an officer says." U.S. Customs spokesman Mike Milne said the officer made a lawful order that travellers must obey but the use of force is under review.

Fortunato said he spoke with the same guard later and the man seemed contrite. He crosses the border two or three times a week to visit his second home in Blaine, Wash., and said he plans to go back.

But first he'll need to send U.S. Customs an RCMP criminal record check and proof that he lives where he said he did. He has no criminal record and said he isn't worried about going back.

Fortunato, who travels the world competing in and teaching jazz dance, said he often deals with customs agents. "I just become more cynical," he said.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yep, that sounds like american justice. Shoot first, shoot some more. Then, when everyone' dead, try to ask a couple questions.

My buddy was down in the states and was pulled over for doing 5 mph over the speed limit. Two cops approached his vehicle with their guns drawn telling him to get out of the car. They threw him to the ground, cuffed him, hit him a couple times before even asking him a simple question.

This is one of the reasons many canadians don't feel safe traveling in the states. I know I don't. If it isn't a black or mexican trying to rob you at gun point, it's the law enforcement using unecesary force treating everyone likes they belong in a maximum security prison before ever asking them a simple question.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Well said Bob. Having crossed the border a lot I can certainly understand why this guy did what he did. The US border guards can be very rude and act like total bullies at times. The system they operate under gives them a lot of power and there are very few methods for a foreign national to file grievances against them.

At one point I had two visas, it's referred to as "dual intent". I had my work based H1-B and my marriage based visa. Both visas allow you to eventually apply for permanent residence status and it is perfectly legal for you to have the two visas at the same time. I had a border agent tear up one of my visas because he decided that I shouldn't have two. Ultimately, I found out that no one cared and that there was basically no recourse other than multiple trips across the border because they would not talk to me unless I exited the country and re-entered. Considering, I lived 5 hours away from the border, I just gave up.

I'm not sure if it's just the Washington state based agents that are particularly bad but in my many travels around the world I do have to say that the US Border Patrol could probably use some lessons in common courtesy. It's just one of those things that makes everyone feel better.

They can still do their job and be nice to people at the same time.
 
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