Comment Re:Tragic, but almost understandable ... (Score 1) 894
An important sentence was left out of the summary, which explained that customs mistook the instruments for pieces of bamboo.
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The moral of the story is to verify that the stuff that you're taking across the border is actually legal for import or export.
Do you see your mistake? The stuff in question _was_ "actually legal". Customs made a _mistake_. One, apparently, with no checks or balances to prevent it.
No, the moral of the story is "power corrupts". It doesn't even have to be intentional, that just speeds things up.
After all, it could have been much worse for this man. I would imagine that charges could have been pressed if they so desired.
Again, no. Because if they were going to charge him with a crime, they would have had to preserve the "evidence" rather than simply destroy his means of livelihood without chance of appeal.
Well, in theory, once upon a time, anyway. These days, with all the revelations about what the US government does in the dark, I'm not so sure.