A Toronto-based science fiction writer known for his dark-themed stories and novels, now faces a real-life dystopian scenario after a run-in with zealous border guards in Michigan.
Marine biologist and author Peter Watts was arrested on December 8 after he was reportedly pepper-sprayed and “beaten without provocation” by U.S. border guards when he challenged their search of his car, according to an article by sci fi writer and web activist Cory Doctorow on the blog boingboing.net.
Watts now faces the felony charge of "assaulting a federal officer," which could involve two years in U.S. prison and lifelong travel restrictions.
Both Watts and the passenger in his car claim he did not attack officers, contrary to the charge’s wording.
In a defiant-sounding blog post, Watts claims the guards “swarmed my car like army ants for no apparent reason.”
He states officers attacked him after he left his vehicle and demanded an explanation of the search.
When Watts did not return to his car he was, in his own words, “punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell.”
The next day Doctorow contacted civil rights lawyers through contacts with the online free speech group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Watts claims he greeted Canada’s first winter storm in shirtsleeves after being released on Canada's side of the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron, Mich. and Sarnia, Ont. after his car, computer and personal items including his jacket, were confiscated. He was unable to retrieve these items after bailing himself out.
Horror author David Nickle is helping raise cash for his friend's legal defence, which the he expects will be priced beyond Watts’ middling sales success as a genre writer.
“Without help, the weight of his legal fees could literally put him on the street by spring,” Nickle states in his blog, The Devil’s Exercise Yard.
Nickle describes the rate news has spread about the incident as “viral” among the imaginative fiction community, who, for the most part, seem supportive.
Commenters visiting the National Post’s Afterword literary blog, meanwhile, were full of warm-hearted sentiments such as, "Beat the hell out of him if only to deter other liberal elitist snobs,” and, “I strongly suspect that Mr. Watts gave the border guards every reason to arrest him.”
Donations are currently being directed to the Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund, a PayPal account created by Watts to feed and cover veterinary care for stray cats he's rescued. Bakka-Phoenix Books will act as a repository for cash donations and will receive cheques through the mail.
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