Re:The Day US Customs Found A Bullet In My Pocket
by matwood on Monday November 01, 2010 @04:01PM
(#1857977)
And they have a tough job. What if the story played out that customs/border patrol found ammunition falling out of a guys pocket and just confiscated it with no further questioning. Then a week later that guy blew up a building? It is their job to determine if someone entering the country is here to do harm. There are plenty of problems with whole airport security thing right now, but questioning this guy further probably isn't one of them.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:The Day US Customs Found A Bullet In My Pocket
by ajays on Monday November 01, 2010 @06:23PM
(#1858486)
You're missing the point. There's questioning, and then there's questioning. What these officers were doing was not "questioning", it was berating. They were just trying to act like sheriffs from an old Western.
If they really wanted to question him, they would have done so gently, by gaining his trust and slowly loosening his lips.
This is why the FBI is dead against torture (I know, this was not torture by any sense of the word) : it doesn't give them anything of value. On the other hand, they have had huge successes by winning the suspect's trust and letting him talk.
Re:The Day US Customs Found A Bullet In My Pocket
by pyre on Monday November 01, 2010 @05:04PM
(#1858212)
In reality, if the guy went on to blow up a building, major media outlets would be calling for any government official that so much as came into contact with him to be brought before a firing squad (regardless of whether or not there was a real reason to suspect him).