Robert Rhodes, the Homeland Security officer who was accused of beating a Chinese businesswoman in New York, was acquitted of criminal civil rights charges last week.
The verdict has caused outrage in China, where photographs of the badly bruised victim are widely circulated in media outlets.
Zhao Yan, a businesswoman from Tianjin, was taking a walk with two Asian friends 2 years ago on Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y., when Rhodes mistook her for an accomplice of a drug suspect they were pursuing. Zhao was subsequently beaten.
According to an affidavit of a senior Homeland Security agent, Rhodes grabbed Zhao, sprayed her face with pepper spray, and smashed her head on the pavement. Her eyes were swollen shut and her face and head badly bruised. Rhodes claimed he was acting according to normal procedure because Zhao had been resisting arrest.
Rhodes’s lawyers said that he was simply a public servant who was acting according to his post-9/11 training.
China's state-run Xinhua News agency ran a story where a citizen was quoted as saying, "If an American burned her lips at MacDonald’s, we know that American law would protect her, but the law doesn’t protect a Chinese who was beaten in America. This shows America’s pompous attitude and racial discrimination."
Zhao sued the U.S. government for a compensation of $10 million, but her case was problematic and her statements were suspect because he U.S. visa had expired and she had violated the terms of her visa when the beating had taken place.
