This whole thing is garbage.
This whole thing is garbage. They bullied her, and denied her her right to speak to the Consulate, and charged her money - which they deny but since there will be a transaction record I'd like to see what story they'll come up with to explain that. All the rest of this is retconning their story.
If they really thought she was an identity thief, all they had to do was have her come with to the station and let her contact the consulate and confirm her identity. Big deal. This was intimidation and IANAL but it doesn't sound like they gave her the rights an American should be afforded. Then again, I doubt they afford Americans the rights Americans should be afforded based on this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-woman-arrested-jailed-in-u-s-for-driving-with-a-canadian-licence-1.4648561
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-woman-arrested-jailed-in-u-s-for-driving-with-a-canadian-licence-1.4648561
If they really thought she was an identity thief, all they had to do was have her come with to the station and let her contact the consulate and confirm her identity. Big deal. This was intimidation and IANAL but it doesn't sound like they gave her the rights an American should be afforded. Then again, I doubt they afford Americans the rights Americans should be afforded based on this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-woman-arrested-jailed-in-u-s-for-driving-with-a-canadian-licence-1.4648561
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-woman-arrested-jailed-in-u-s-for-driving-with-a-canadian-licence-1.4648561
On the one hand, it’s pretty ridiculous for a US cop not to know how to recognize valid Canadian licenses (although if they’re as by-state as inside the us, I’m not entirely sure I blame him). On the other, it is completely ridiculous for a foreigner to not be carrying their passport or equivalent document while abroad and think that a phone scan is adequate. That’s the backup in case you lose it, not the default option.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the third hand the whole thing with the bail etc is very fishy.
Yeah. I mean, issue a ticket. You can do that for not having your registration in the car, for example. This macho nonsense of arresting everyone even if they're cooperating because they might be a criminal suggests a lousy attitude and a power trip all the way up and down the line. And probably performance reviews based on some kind of quota.
ReplyDeleteAs far as recognizing a license, there's no way they would recognize licenses from all 50 states. They have computers for that.
There is no justification for not letting her contact her consulate. Unless the laws have changed, she's allowed/entitled to do that.
Sadly, I have to say that this is not surprising to me. Both for historical anecdata reasons about small towns almost everywhere in the US (stop 'em, fine 'em, get their money and let them go) and because I don't expect anything to have changed since a personal experience where someone with the original of their Canadian passport got challenged on the validity of their ID in a small college town in Indiana. It was almost like the diversity of the college-ness made the townies even more resentful, probably because that was why they had an economy. Of course, we all decided to make jokes afterwards about it because they were from Quebec ....