Anger Burger

Something awful happened to one of the writers I respect most in the world, Peter Watts, and it has led to a great deal of sad discussion around my household this morning.  First, the facts.

Peter Watts, a Canadian citizen, was crossing the border into the US returning to Canada from the US (from what I can gather he was helping a friend move), when for whatever reason he was punched in the face, pepper sprayed, kicked, left in a cell and then charged with felony assault on a federal officer.  If Watts did anything to provoke this attack, it wasn’t physical, and the assault charge is typical for when border guards want to hold someone overnight in a cell and make the rest of their border-crossing lives hard — in other words, it was petty.  There is a high likelihood that the spurious assault charge will be dismissed without Watts even having to be present, but there will unquestionably be complications.

So.  Watts is a writer, which means that he can’t afford the kind of legal defense that will come of this (another aspect of the guards’ pettiness that was likely intentional).  He was also physically attacked, remember, and he’ll get no recompense for this.

I think we can all imagine this scenario – it’s the kind of thing I think about each time I go through Security Theater at the airport.  A guard takes a special dislike to you.  You say something, maybe smart-assed, maybe just rational – things escalate.   And suddenly, this guard, this pent-up imbecile who has entirely bought into the bullshit his superiors have fed him about how important and powerful he is, he punches you in the face.  He physically attacks you.  You automatically defend yourself, an animal response, you lash back while moving away, call out for help.  Except you’re surrounded by more of these douchebags, and all they can think is fight! fight! And they’ve trained and trained for this and they have no idea what’s happening, but the pepperspray is out and you don’t have a chance.

Anyway, in the end, Watts has a felony charge against him.

So I tell Mike about this and he says, “Sounds like something that would happen to me,” and I realize that is why I feel so intensely upset over this.  It does sound like something that would happen to him.  Or me.  Or my dad.  Or anyone who is intelligent enough to question what people in arbitrary positions of authority do.

The discussion inevitably led into what we could do to help.  The problem for us is that we are broke, the poorest we’ve been in our adult lives.  Living without a savings for the first time since we started making money as teenagers.   Instead, all I can offer¹ Watts is my earnest attempt to get someone else to help him, so here I am: will you help him?

If you go to his website and donate to the PayPal account called “The Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund” (which was originally for Watts’ predilection for taking in stray cats) and send an email to donate (at) rifters (dot) com specifying that it is for his legal defense, it will get to him..  You can also help by supporting his normal route of income, his books.  I recommend Blindsight very highly.

¹ Well, I can offer a soft bosom to weep upon, but I don’t think his ladyfriend would like that. Or my gentleman friend.