Sorry, but this has been bugging me for, well, years now and I'll just sum up my feelings here:
Loss of civil liberties
Increased Power and militarization of many govt agencies in the name of anti-terrorism
And of course the financial cost measured in the trillions of dollarscouple sailors at sea heading to the bahamas wrote:Enter US Customs and Border Protection:
I was shaken awake soon after sunrise, just as I was starting to get into my first deep sleep since arriving on the boat. Groggily I joined the rest of the crew on deck where I was yelled at for taking so long, though it had been at most one minute. After some shouted instructions to maintain course and speed two of the CBP agents attempted to board us without notice or warning. Maybe they we were worried that we would call up a wind and whisk ourselves away?
Whatever the reason, their surprise boarding attempt was unsuccessful. When they put fenders out they had placed them far too high for our low freeboard. As the sharp V of their hull came abruptly alongside ours, riding up on a small wave, these fenders rolled uselessly up onto our deck. Then their hull came down, landing on two of our starboard stanchions, pushing them violently inboard and ripping screws out of our caprail. Predictably, I suppose, their response to this gross error was to yell at our helmsman.
Then they came back for a second try. The second attempt had just as much yelling and machismo but maybe a wee bit less bravado as they had us untie and lower our lifeline in preparation rather than jumping on unannounced. Two officers came aboard, rather clumsily, for a cursory search. Then they ran our passports and dodged questions about their names and badge numbers (we were given a phone number for their 'supervisor') before finally going to bother someone else.
As you maybe noticed, I found this encounter infuriating. It's not so much the ignominy of being searched without provocation which bothers me- as much as our marine forces' near-limitless powers of search and seizure bug me in principle, in practice I've spent my whole life getting used to them (Incidentally, Clark Beek recently wrote a great overview of this issue). What really got me about this incident, and these agents, was their boorishness and disrespect they showed us, even after damaging our boat. Even a staunch defender of the 'necessity' of such far-reaching powers ought to admit there is no reason these people couldn't be courteous.
It's just too much.
