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June 07, 2005
Damned if you do, damned if you don't
When I saw this article about the Canadian Chainsaw Murderer, I started composing a post in my head. It went something like this: "I can't believe the MSM is criticizing the border patrol for not holding someone about whom they had no information to suggest that he had committed any crime."
But then I saw this post by the inestimable Professor Reynolds. He holds the incident up as being an example of why homeland security is a joke. So I thought, "Well, geez... I usually agree with Glenn. I must be wrong. Let me read it again and reassess my opinion.
Nope. I think Glenn's wrong on this one. What if this guy hadn't killed anyone, and the chainsaw was just rusty, or he had used it to, oh, I don't know... say, tear down his red barn (o.k., I'm stretching, but stay with me here.) [OOOOOoooo wait! What if he was a new agey artist on his way to performing Chainsaw In Red Paint at a National Endowment of the Arts function?] How quickly would someone on the left jump up and down and shout ASHCROFT!! in an ACLU meeting to incite a lefty riot about how citizen's rights were being trampled by the border patrol, who had detained this innocent man for an excessive period of time for no better reason than they didn't like the look of his chain saw? [And an artiste no less!]
Seriously, though. What's the probable cause to detain this guy? He's carrying some weapons and a chainsaw that may or may not have blood on it. And yet they did detain him - for two hours. (I didn't get detained for two hours the last time I crossed the border - how about you?) But they simply didn't have a reason to keep him.
If anyone can posit a reason based upon either state or federal law for detaining someone under these circumstances, I'm open to the argument. But based upon the AP story, I just don't see it.
Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released. During that time, he said, customs agents employed "every conceivable method" to check for warrants or see if Despres had broken any laws in trying to re-enter the country."Nobody asked us to detain him," Anthony said. "Being bizarre is not a reason to keep somebody out of this country or lock them up. ... We are governed by laws and regulations, and he did not violate any regulations."
Anthony conceded it "sounds stupid" that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: "Our people don't have a crime lab up there. They can't look at a chain saw and decide if it's blood or rust or red paint."
That sounds about right to me. And respectfully, I don't see how this is an indictment of homeland security. After all - there was no reason to detain him at the border, but they did take away his weapons. Then, when Canadian authorities did finally get around to putting out an alert of this guy, American authorities were able to find him within hours. To my way of thinking, the system worked as it should in this case.
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