Comment by cogman10
4 days ago
This whole thing highlights how insane US border law is.
Sam was physically in the US, but because he was on an international flight, he was arrested in a manner that would be unconstitutional anywhere else in the US. He was denied a lawyer, questioned for I presume hours, had his phone stolen without a warrant, and then was released because there was no crime CBP could figure out how to charge him with then and there.
Months later, he gets charged by a federal statute even though where he committed the crime was a place that federal law does? doesn't? extend. Apparently it's a very convenient place where the constitution is void but federal laws still matter.
Cops can't arrest or detain you without some articulable suspicion of a crime being committed. They can't steal your stuff to try and find a crime you committed. They can't search your phone without a warrant in which they provide a judge with enough evidence to reasonably suspect a crime has been committed.
Yet Sam apparently had no rights because he was put on a watchlist for exercising first amendment rights.
Very despicable behavior by the government and the federal prosecutors pursuing this case.
Indeed. Hopefully the next administration will hold current officials accountable for such abuses of power.
This problem pre-dates the current administration. Safe to say it has bipartisan support.
https://www.aclu.org/documents/constitution-100-mile-border-...
Yeah, and then they’ll give everyone a pony
It’s up to the people. If you can convince enough people this is worth voting for, you might accomplish something.
It is not always obvious how necessary it is to get involved in politics, even if it is inconvenient, as Mr. Tunick demonstrates. I’m not American and don’t live in the US, so, what I can objectively do is very close to nothing- my advice is pretty obvious and far from unique.
It seems many countries have a general low opinion of politics, as something dirty you shouldn’t engage with. We need to overcome that.