Customs Officer Beats up Chinese Lady Tourist
A Customs officer charged with beating a Chinese tourist said that he had acted "by the book" during a struggle in which the woman was pepper-sprayed, thrown against a wall and had her head forced to the pavement.
"When I stopped her, she fought. I followed procedure by the book," said the officer.
The senior Inspector is charged with depriving Zhao Yan of the constitutional protection against unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer. He could face 10 years in prison if convicted.
Zhao, 38, who owns a furniture company in Tianjin, is suing the government for $10 million over the incident that has drawn intense interest in China.
The Inspector’s advocate has accused the government of bowing to pressure from the Chinese and alleges that the Inspector was singled out because he is gay.
Assistant Government Attorney has denied that either political pressure or the officer's homosexuality played a role in the indictment.
The prosecution told the court that within seconds of running up to Zhao, the officer emptied a can of pepper spray in her face and threw her against a wall, causing her to fall to her knees, her hands clamped to her burning eyes. When other officers couldn't pry Zhao's hands from her face to handcuff her, the Inspector kneed her three times in the head, grabbed her hair and pounded her head into the cement.
The officer defended that he had been clawed and kicked by the Chinese woman; “Terrorists come in all sizes, shapes and colours," his counsel said.
Fortunately our Customs officers are not so bad; this happened in that famous US of A.