Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Border Drama (from a friend's journal):

Welcome to the new state of the border into Canada. Where a woman giving a ride to two friends becomes targeted and her car ripped open.
"I was going to let this drop, but after taking a good look at the interior of my car today, I'm fucking livid.

Saturday Afternoon I brought the Canadians back to the Greyhound station in Windsor so they could get back to Toronto. I dropped them off and immediately headed back to the tunnel - I was still a bit hungover bust mostly I just had a nasty cold coming on, all I wanted to do was get back into the US and crawl back into bed for a bit. I figred coming back alone was going to be simple. I know border procedures well. Don't look like shit, have a clean car and have all your papers in order. Aside from myself looking a bit ill, I was dressed sedately, my car was immaculate (fresh from carwash and vacuum, no packages or bags or trash, no music on, hatch cover open so the back was in plain view) and passport and license were out.

The first screener started off with the usual schpeel, then escalated into how long I knew my friends that I was dropping off, how I knew them, how I met them, where I worked, what my title was, and then it got weirder - why I was traveling with alone with two non-US men (wtf?????). Why there was no other females in our group...were one of these men my boyfriend? Do I have a boyfriend? How would he feel if he knew I was with two men from out of the country? (At this point this shitbag probably sensed anger off me, as anyone who knows me at all knows I don't take blanket gender stereotypes well...but I wasn't about to get into a philosophical discussion with this guy, I just wanted to go home and take a nap.) I was *never* short with him (even though I wanted to bite his head off), I was truthful (we went to a concert, yes I have a boyfriend, yes, he also knows them) then he just laid into me "why do you look so nervous" (I don't feel very well and just want to get home) and again repeating himself ... ("I'm really not nervous, I'm just coming down with the flu, want to get get home...)

He slapped the orange tag on my windshield and I was off to be searched. This isn't the first time it has happened - probably the 4th - but NEVER to this extent. I was instructed to leave everything except my money, leave any cell, blackberry, any kind of communication device, all pens and paper, purse - then they were all weird that I didn't have a purse - "where is your purse" - "I don't always carry one, everything is in my pockets" - "what kind of girl doesn't carry a purse?" - "uhhh, everything fits in my coat pockets" Then I had to empty my coat pockets. What kind of girl? WTF.

So I go into that awfully fluorescent lit room, present my ID again, they ask me the same questions but then really start into me "why are you nervous "why are you so nervous...people are only nervous who have something to hide...what are you hiding... WHY are you so nervous?!?"

Again and again I said I had nothing to hide, I just didn't feel well and wanted to get home. (I was coughing like I was going to lose a lung, this wasn't some mystery illness in my head.)

At this point they break out the dogs, they're jumping around like mad in my car, this escalates the internal freakout to about a + eleventy billion. Let me preface this by saying I have never had ANY form of contraband in my car. Ever. I don't smoke cigarettes or anything else (yes, I admit I have in the past, but my asthma has gone apeshit over the last year and a half and I've totally quit any of that.) So I should have no worries, right? BUT I was the only one thus far who was being searched who had NOT been hauled off to jail yet. They had found something on *everyone*. They were just hauling one guy off for having ONE pot seed under his floormat. SO I'm thinking shit...I have had passengers...what if something fell out of a pocket...what if something had fallen off a passenger of the the person I bought the car from...I've only had it for about a month...what if they are planting shit on people? I know I had no rational reason to worry but at this point, they were using what I realize now were just intimidation tactics, which were bordering on abusive. I couldn't jot down a badge number, couldn't call anyone...

I've now been detained for about an hour.

They went on with the "why are you so nervous...what are you hiding" for even more, somehow I kept it together and was just honest with them and stated that "I have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, I am prone to panic attacks when I feel out of control of a situation, and when I do not have my phone or belongings, I feel out of control." I didn't want to get into my whole fucking psychological history with these people, but as my heart was doing about 180 and I felt like I was going to pass out, I didn't have much choice.

Finally after sitting there for another 15 minutes, the dogs were done, their demeanor immediately changed 100% - ok, Ms. S****, have a good night, and told me to go.

They didn't find anything, of course.

So I was pretty "off" for the rest of the day, trying to get rid of the panic attack, was about to put it behind me into the "shit happens" category...then this morning I actually look at the interior of the rear of MY NICE NEW FUCKING CAR and it is completely destroyed. There are holes in the door (through the pleather and into the foam/body of the door), holes in the seat, rips in cloth, my cd changer in the back doesn't work at all, won't recognize it - hopefully it is just a wire that got ripped out. nail scratches all over the interior. Carpet cut on the floor. I was so pissed off to see this I haven't documented it all. This was the first time I've had something nice and new (well, new to me, I know it wasn't new but I got it in immaculate condition). I can't bitch to anyone, I have no names, no badge numbers and like I'm going to go complain to these scary motherfuckers? Yeah, that'll blacklist me forever. I hate this intimidation shit, I hate this fucking country, I hate that they can just rip your shit apart and assume you have crap on you when you don't, make absurd generalizations about gender and just be douchebags."

The scary thing about this is that in the comments from friends of this person, one person had even the doors removed from their car. Their car looked like the nun car in Up in Smoke and they had no fucking recourse. Apparently this is happening more and more between here and Canada. And that freaks me out and bothers me immeasurably.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."