Sci-Fi Writer Peter Watts Convicted of Assault 381
Posted
by
timothy
from the tensions-rose dept.
from the tensions-rose dept.
SJrX writes "CBC news is reporting that Peter Watts has indeed been convicted of Assaulting border guards, (discussed here). He will be sentenced April 26th."
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:3, Informative)
The wikipedia article linked to in the summary implies there was a video of the incident.
"A local newspaper, the Port Huron Times-Herald, submitted a FOIA request to US Customs and Border Protection to be given the video recording of the incident. On January 14, 2010, the paper reported that the agency denied the request because "it is an ongoing investigation."[15]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Watts#Border_incident
Watts' comments on the verdict (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1186 [rifters.com]
"Convicted of assault" is very misleading (Score:5, Informative)
From Watts' own blog [rifters.com]:
Making Light put it more caustically [nielsenhayden.com]:
Re:don't f**k with the police! (Score:5, Informative)
Not sure why you got moderated up, because the court threw out the accusation that he attempted to strangle the officer. The guards' testimony was demolished on cross examination as inconsistent and the only thing that the prosecutor had at the end was that, after the guard had punched him in the face several times (an event which the prosecution did not dispute), he did not immediately comply with an instruction to lie on the ground.
Events like this that make life difficult for the majority of police officers, who actually want to do a good job and protect people from criminals. They undermine the public faith in the police and in the judicial system. If you can be convicted of not following police instructions after they have assaulted you, then why on earth would you ever go near the police, let alone cooperate with them? Whichever legislator thought up that particular law deserves jail time.
Re:yey (Score:3, Informative)
The CBC story is wrong - Watts was NOT convicted of assault.
So don't worry, this isn't a blot on your soul, and as a Canadian I can say we still love you all, and hope for the best for you, and apologize for Mr. Watts being a self-righteous jerk who feels he can give less deference to American police than he'd have to show to Canadian police and then whine about "mistreatment" because of the possible bad optics.
Courtesy begats courtesy. It doesn't cost anything to be polite, especially when you're a guest in another country.
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:3, Informative)
The jurors watched complete video of the entire encounter, and then found Watts guilty.
They also said that the border guards acted like assholes, but given the law and Watts's actions, they had to find him guilty.
Re:"Convicted of assault" is very misleading (Score:4, Informative)
Both the blogs are biased, uninformative, and basically uninteresting.
Furthermore, the source chosen for the slashdot posting seems to have been searched for and specifically chosen so as to be the least informative and lacking in interest. A better one is at Toronto Star [thestar.com]
Among the information in that paper is a statement by Watts that the trial was fair, and a direct contradiction to "Making Light's" timeline of events.
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:5, Informative)
I am a criminal defense attorney. My experience is that whenever it's the word of the police versus the word of the person accused of a crime, the accused loses. In most jurisdictions in the US, judges and juries tend to believe the cops. Unless the case was tried by a jury in a large metro area with significant minority population ( and the jury is reflective of that), chances are a guilty verdict will result.
Re:yey (Score:1, Informative)
Who the hell modded this bullshit up? None of what you said has anything to do with what happened. I'm sick of border guard astroturfers like you evrywhere this comes up.
He was beaten and then told to lie on the ground, not get back in his car. When he asked what's going on, _after being beaten up_, maced. He was convicted for not complying with the order to lie down after being beaten, not assault.
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:5, Informative)
Jurors watched complete video of the entire incident. In interviews afterwards, they said the border guards acted like assholes, but Watts was guilty of the law as explained to them.
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:2, Informative)
His blog entry seems to suggest that the question the jury considered was whether his failure to comply with a command was sufficient to warrant his conviction. In other words, the issue wasn't who slugged whom first, because it was conceded that the border guard hit him in the face first. The issue was after that, he failed to comply with the border guard's order promptly and that was what he was convicted for, not for assaulting the border guard, which was disproven in court.
If his account is honest, it seems like something of a travesty of our legal system. If you are punched in the face by a border guard, how can YOU be the one who committed an assault? I still doubt slightly whether his account leaves something out of what went on in court.
the facts of the case (Score:5, Informative)
At no point did Watts engage in a physical confrontation with the CBP officers. Upon cross-examination the "choking" accusation and the "aggressive stance" accusations were shown to have been fabricated.
The conviction stemmed solely from point #5 Here are a couple of post-trial juror statements. One was posted on Watts own site. The other was posted as a comment to the Port Huron report on the verdict; see
http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20100319/NEWS01/3190308/Jury-remains-out-in-Watts-trial?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:e3d49247-c265-47a6-9721-5713e32cc7ed [thetimesherald.com]
As a member of the jury that convicted Mr. Watts today, I have a few comments to make. The jury’s task was not to decide who we liked better. The job of the jury was to decide whether Mr. Watts “obstructed/resisted” the custom officials. Assault was not one of the charges. What it boiled down to was Mr. Watts did not follow the instructions of the customs agents. Period. He was not violent, he was not intimidating, he was not stopping them from searching his car. He did, however, refuse to follow the commands by his non compliance. He’s not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination. The customs agents escalted the situation with sarcasm and miscommunication. Unfortunately, we were not asked to convict those agents with a crime, although, in my opinion, they did commit offenses against Mr. Watts. Two wrongs don’t make a right, so we had to follow the instructions as set forth to us by the judge.
Peter,
I believe your description of the trial and deliberations is more accurate than you could know. As a non-conformist and “libertarian” (who has had some experiences not unlike yours) I was not comfortable with my vote, but felt deep inside that it was consistent with the oath we took as jurors. I believe nearly all the jurors searched for a legitimate reason to vote differently. In the end it came down to the question “Was the law broken?”. While I would much rather have a beer and discussion with you than Officer B. I never the less felt obligated to vote my conscience. I also believe most, if not all, the jurors sincerely hope that you are handled with a great degree of leniency, we, unfortunately have no say in that matter.
Re:yey (Score:2, Informative)
>He was told to get back into his car after the officer had just punched him in the face.
Em, no, that is incorrect. After being repeatedly struck in the face, he was told to lie down, and when he asked what is going on (and presumably why he was just beaten up by the border guard), maced. He was convicted of failing to comply with the order to lie down after being beaten up without any kind of prelude or communication prior to the beating. Not assault.
Only for refusal to comply (Score:5, Informative)
There wasn't really much argument about whether or not Watts immediately and obediently complied with the order - he says he asked them what they were doing and why. It took the jury about four days to decide that the law said that meant he was technically guilty of not complying. The juror who commented on Watts's blog also said that the cops had acted badly in the way they attacked Watts, but that this case was against Watts and not an assault or brutality case against the cops so they had no official judgement about that.
Re:yey (Score:2, Informative)
>No, he was told to get back in his car, twice. He refused. At that point, they tried to arrest him, he got into his car (too late Chuckles), yadda yadda yadda.
For fuck's sake, for the last time, you fucking idiot astroturfer, no.
He went back into the car when told to. Another officer then ran to the car, opened the door of the car, punched Watts repeatedly in the face, and dragged Watts out of the car. What he did not comply with is lie down on the ground after being beaten up like that.
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:5, Informative)
Jury nullification can't be explained to them. A defense attorney who tries to argue it gets an immediate mistrial.
FYI, if you're ever on an (American) jury, you can't argue for nullification there, either. A juror who argues to nullify gives grounds to the judge to set aside the verdict. If you're going to nullify, you just keep saying "I'm not convinced by the prosecution's case." Jury nullification exists only insofar as, if the jury says "not guilty" (and holds that the prosecution didn't prove its case), the prosecution can't try the accused again. As an explicit jury right, it doesn't exist, notwithstanding the arguments of libertarians. It's an implicit tactic only.
Re:yey (Score:4, Informative)
He was told to get back into his car after the officer had just punched him in the face.
I can't even imagine where this timeline of events was created. Probably in your head. It doesn't appear in any credible news source.
Ah crap. The command was to lie down on the ground, not to get back in the car.
As for the source, it's direct from Dr. Watts himself:
"So what it came down to, ultimately, was those moments after I was repeatedly struck in the face by Beaudry (an event not in dispute, incidentally). After Beaudry had finished whaling on me in the car, and stepped outside, and ordered me out of the vehicle; after I’d complied with that, and was standing motionless beside the car, and Beaudry told me to get on the ground — I just stood there, saying “What is the problem?”, just before Beaudry maced me.
And that, said the Prosecutor in her final remarks — that, right there, was failure to comply. That was enough to convict."
Re:yey (Score:2, Informative)
According to a juror, when he did get into the car, another officer joined him, punched him in the face, and told him to get back out. He was trying to clarify conflicting orders. Even in the military, that's a get-out-of-jail free card.
Besides, why have we (Americans...I couldn't care less about how Canucks want to kowtow) let The Powers That Be that we let them push us around like this in the first place. Compliance laws are just another way for our Lords and Masters to deal with unruly serfs who don't submit quickly enough.
Re:the facts of the case (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification [wikipedia.org]
Every citizen eligible for jury duty should know about this.
Jury nullification (Score:4, Informative)
NOT CONVICTED OF ASSAULT! (Score:5, Informative)
Jesus Christ, it's bad enough when the mainstream press repeats crap like this, but I would have thought Slashdot posters were capable of reading plain English.
He was convicted of failing to follow direction quickly enough for the border guards. The accusations of assault were found to be baseless.
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:5, Informative)
This is why we have jury nullification and why the correct answer to "Do you believe in jury nullfication?" is "no, I do not".
Re:Ready 1...2...3... Rush to judgement. (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, when law is bad, the jury can rule that it was bad law. A Jury is not required to convict someone when the application of the law is inappropriate. I know, no one tells us that, but it's true. Conscience is indeed a factor when a jury renders a decision. If steeling a jelly doughnut were somehow punishable by death and the person were on trial for the crime, I simply couldn't convict someone of that crime... unless I hated him for some other reason.
Re:yey (Score:1, Informative)
It's been conclusively proven that the story about the scuffle and Watts trying to choke one of the officers was a lie.
Re:the facts of the case (Score:4, Informative)
Allowing a jury to determine whether the law *should* be followed or not undermines the criminal justice system, and is a bad suggestion.
And yet jury nullifications [wikipedia.org] can and do happen. So clearly juries are 'allowed' to use their own criteria if they choose to, at least in the sense that there is no way to stop them from doing so.
Wasn't convicted of assault... (Score:3, Informative)
He was convicted of obstructing/resisting, not assault.
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=1193 [rifters.com]