If Our Border Security Is So Great…

by John Hawkins | June 7, 2005 7:40 pm

Yep, our border security is tight as a drum, fit as a fiddle, solid as a rock, and as good as any other cliche you can manage to come up with — or so we’re often told.

Of course, if that’s so, it begs an obvious question, one which is helpfully posed by the Boston Globe:

“At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?”

Here are the details[1]:

“On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres.

Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres’ hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on his kitchen floor. The man’s head was in a pillow case under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence between him and his neighbors, and he was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweat shirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month.

At a time when the United States is tightening its borders, how could a man toting what appeared to be a bloody chain saw be allowed into the country?

Bill Anthony, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the Canada-born Despres could not be detained because he is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not wanted on any criminal charges on the day in question.

Anthony said Despres was questioned for two hours before he was released….Anthony conceded it “sounds stupid” that a man wielding what appeared to be a bloody chain saw could not be detained. But he added: “Our people don’t have a crime lab up there. They can’t look at a chain saw and decide if it’s blood or rust or red paint.”

Yep, it’s tight as a drum on the border, tight as a drum…

Endnotes:
  1. the details: http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_06_05_corner-archive.asp#065364

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