I dunno if any of you have heard about a guy reentering the US after visiting China, but here: http://consumerist.com/2010/09/customs.html (http://consumerist.com/2010/09/customs.html)
Here's his responses:
http://knifetricks.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-brief-responses-to-700-comments.html (http://knifetricks.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-brief-responses-to-700-comments.html)
Successful troll is successful.
Honestly, so long as you don't do as this guy did you can pretty much say anything outside of "terrorist training" and just be passed through without second thought, however the response "none of your business" indicates aggression without cause which is a signal to authorities that you might suddenly explode at the slightest perceived insult/taunt and as such you become a security risk.
While I agree with some of his message, I disagree with the politeness part. Even if you aren't hindering the other people in line, you are making both yours and multiple officers' days much more difficult by being rude.
There are more than enough ways to answer the question that will get his point across without needlessly angering someone.
With a couple of minutes to myself, I'd like to toss in my $0.02 on this.
As some may know, I'm a government contractor, and the agency I work with has regular dealings with agencies like ICE, CBP, Border Patrol, and even TSA, and so I've observed some things about being a federal employee. Keep in mind that all of these agencies are under DHS. DHS has been putting EVERYONE under the microscope, even us contractors. Anytime anything goes awry, down to even the smallest little incident, people get talked to by scary government agents, reports get written and sent off to people who can get you fired NOW, and in those cases, people start seriously fearing for their jobs. Many people here in my office have, and are currently in, that kind of situation. CBP is no exception to this. If someone gets belligerent, such as this guy with his "None of your business" attitude, red flags must be raised. If it gets passed over then the CBP officer is held accountable. Yes, the CBP officer took that job and is doing his job and can quit that job. But he's also under lots of scrutiny and his every action must be accounted for.
I notice that he is very black and white and very much anti-authority on this. Nine times out of ten, if you are polite and answer honestly, you'll get waved through. But if you get belligerent for the sake of wielding your right to remain silent, which you ARE entitled to, you simply shouldn't shout "abuse of power" when you get grabbed and questioned. For all they know, you could be up to no good, or you could just be a troll. They don't know. All they know is that when it happens, they must take action right then and there, they don't have time to think, and then they have to report to their superiors about what happened and what action they took. If they took action that their superiors view as incorrect then they WILL be reprimanded. DHS isn't being a doormat anymore. Everything and everyone is being seriously scrutinized, even my work is under the microscope.
heh, this reminds me of the Police Training Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8) done by Chris Rock.