Changing Biases

  It's axiomatic that people get more conservative as they get older, but in my case the opposite is true. I'm definitely more liberal in the classical sense than I was as a youth.  This means my biases have changed, naturally.

 Case in point, this story as reported at BoingBoing:

 

Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is in serious legal trouble after he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and imprisoned by American border guards at a Canada U.S. border crossing December 8. This is a call to friends, fans and colleagues to help.

Peter, a Canadian citizen, was on his way back to Canada after helping a friend move house to Nebraska over the weekend. He was stopped at the border crossing at Port Huron, Michigan by U.S. border police for a search of his rental vehicle. When Peter got out of the car and questioned the nature of the search, the gang of border guards subjected him to a beating, restrained him and pepper sprayed him. At the end of it, local police laid a felony charge of assault against a federal officer against Peter. On Wednesday, he posted bond and walked was taken across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves (he was released by Port Huron officials with his car and possessions locked in impound, into a winter storm that evening). He's home safe. For now. But he has to go back to Michigan to face the charge brought against him.

The charge is spurious. But it's also very serious. It could mean two years in prison in the United States, and a ban on travel in that country for the rest of Peter's life.

This is according to Dr. Watts account of the incident, and I have no personal insight into what actually happened. Some years ago, as a conservative, I would have been more skeptical of Dr. Watts story, deferring to the authorities as to what actually happened. But I realize now that would be an error. If I could lay a wager on it I would bet that his account is much closer to the truth than what the Border Patrol agents allege. That is without taking into account Cory Doctorow's and Dale Amon's trust in Dr. Watt's version.