If you were in a situation where you believed the police were acting improperly, wouldn't it be both more politically effective and safer to make an official complaint later than to try arguing with them at the time?
Never talk to police. Never ever ever. Back in high school, I broke up a fight. I came between two people and stopped them from duking it out. A nice, kind, female police officer started talking to me. She asked me how old I was. I replied that I was 18 (Ontario had 13 grades at the time and I was in OAC, the last grade). She then asked me if I'd laid a hand on any of the people. I said, "yes I pulled back my friend and separated them". She then warned me that I could be charged for assault and tried as an adult. At first I thought she was joking, so I kind of chuckled, but she let the thought linger over my head while I tried to figure out what she was getting at. What she really wanted me to do was play along with the report of how things went down, which I'd disagreed with. I quickly weighed the options, determined that no charges would be laid if we just helped this officer out and kept her paper work to the minimum, and went along... Not my proudest moment, but perhaps quite smart.
What's my point? You think you know what you're going to do in a situation like that, but the police hold all the cards. Things can escalate uncontrollably. All you need is a peace officer having a bad day (e.g., maybe the wife yelled at him earlier in the day) for things to get really bad. I've seen people get picked on by police when they literally didn't do anything except ask "Why?" and often in a polite way. It's quite possible that the author really is the victim here. It's certainly more plausible than the border guard's story. When crossing the U.S. border, I'm terrified to even wish them a good morning/afternoon. They're terribly rude, uneducated, and a freaking embarrassment to the U.S..
Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed that since Obama took office, things have gotten a lot better. Every immigration agent I have met over the last year (ORD and BOS) has been quite pleasant, which has not been my experience in the past.
I was even searched by customs once, and the guy was quite nice, even though I pushed back a little bit. (Honestly, I was kind of hoping to be arrested for not revealing my crypto password. But the agent didn't seem to care much; a quick inspection of my backpack and a bit of conversation about ebook readers, and I was on my way.)
Maybe I am lucky, or maybe things are getting better. I hope it's the second one!
The US border guards are nowhere near as bad as the Canadian ones, and the Canadian border laws are worse too: having been barred from entry by one shitheaded guard in the past is grounds to be barred automatically in the future.
And it's funny, please tell Fox News that are border laws are more stringent. Apparently we're the leaky sieve of North America when it comes to letting in terrorists :)
Sure, but try thinking rationally after getting punched in the face. And don't forget that Canadians and Americans have very different expectations of how to interact with law enforcement.
That is what I would do. Sure, arrest me. Then my rights are well-established, and if my rights are compromised, the penalties imposed on the police are severe. (In the US, anyway.)
