Okay, this is just stupid

[merrily]

So, it turns out Peter Watts wasn't convicted of assault, but he WAS convicted of disobeying a border guard. That is, he wasn't disobeying a border guard when he got out of his car to ask what the problem was, but when, after that, he was peppersprayed and beaten, and subsequently resisted being peppersprayed and beaten, he became guilty of disobeying a border guard.

BoingBoing has the story here. Peter himself has posted about it at length here (and says that about 1500 people sent donations, which is why he was able to actually mount a defense. Yay, internet!).

Can we discuss how stupid this is? This is entirely and completely insane.

Previous entries on this topic:

11 December 2009
19 March 2010

Comments

[starlady]

Wait, and he's going to get two years for that? WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT.

I mean, it's been clear for a while (at least 2005, iirc) that borders are places where rights don't exist, but that doesn't mean that should be the case, and this is ludicrous.

[merrily]

I don't know? The maximum for assault is two years, but that's not what the guilty charge ended up being for. Peter wrote a lengthy post about the outcome, but I'm uncertain whether it's going to end in jail time. Hopefully not.

[starlady]

Yes, definitely.