Border guard administers beating at Niagara Falls
 

Woman's injury now an international issue

By GENE WARNER
News Staff Reporter
7/28/2004

The alleged beating of a Chinese businesswoman by a Customs and Border Protection officer at the Rainbow Bridge last week has turned into an international issue.
The attack against Zhao Yan, a 37-year-old woman visiting the Falls on a business trip to the United States, left her with both eyes nearly swollen shut and the officer, Robert Rhodes, 43, of Niagara Falls, facing a serious criminal charge.

But the incident, which occurred at about 11:15 p.m. last Wednesday night, also has led to these developments:

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing have discussed the incident, with the Chinese official demanding an investigation and the State Department later vowing to conduct a thorough probe.

Zhao's attorney has vowed to file a lawsuit seeking at least $5 million in the incident, which the attorney called an assault on an innocent civilian.

The incident at the Rainbow Bridge also has led to headlines in at least several newspapers in China, with the victim calling the United States a "barbarous" and "brutal" place.

"I felt deeply humiliated," Zhao told the South China Morning Post. "I have been to many countries, but the U.S. is the most brutal place."

The China Daily showed a photo of Zhao's bruise-covered face. And the People's Daily quoted her as saying that she's been to many nations for business reasons, "and the United States is the most barbarous."

Rhodes was accused of using excessive physical force and pepper spray to subdue Zhao. The officer apparently thought - mistakenly - that she was one of three women accompanying a drug suspect at the pedestrian checkpoint on the bridge.

Law-enforcement officials said Rhodes was suspended from his job, before being charged with a federal civil-rights violation involving bodily harm. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Rhodes was released on a $50,000 signature bond and ordered to appear again before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott on Sept. 20.

"We take this matter very seriously," U.S. Attorney Michael A. Battle said Tuesday. "It's the responsibility of our office to investigate cases of alleged civil-rights violations."

The incident started when a male pedestrian had cleared customs at the bridge, before he was found carrying several pounds of marijuana.

According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court by the Department of Homeland Security, Rhodes hit the "duress" button and called for assistance. He later told superiors he asked the three women to come inside the inspection station, but instead they started to run. He then grabbed the nearest woman, Zhao.

Rhodes told officials that the woman tried to pull away from him and swung her arms at him, before he sprayed her with pepper spray.

Other officers, however, have claimed that Rhodes also threw Zhao into a wall, grabbed her hair, kneed her in the head and struck her head on the ground, according to the affidavit.

In his affidavit, Senior Special Agent Steven MacMartin of the Department of Homeland Security stated that the Chinese woman suffered swollen eyes, bruises around the eyes and a contusion on her forehead.

Zhao has claimed that her two friends fled immediately when officers first approached them, but she felt she had done nothing wrong, so she stayed put.

"Whenever I hear a man speaking English or see one wearing a U.S. police uniform, it makes me cringe," Zhao told the South China Morning Post. "The assault not only physically harmed me, but also left me with mental trauma."


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There's already a flyertalk thread on this issue here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=343416

However, I thought it would be of interest to this forum.

All in favour of having this guy serve his sentence in a Chinese prison, say I :)

- Notam

Despicable

Sad, but not surprising!!!
Shoot first, ask questions later.
Or in this case, beat em up and pepper spray 'em! :mad:

Welcome to America. I've asked to leave my transborder project coz I'm tired of dealing with crap while crossing the border, even with my Multiple Entry I-94.

I don't think there are any words that can describe this type of ... act. He should be subjected to the maximum fine... and spending time in the most brutal Chinese prison may not be a bad thing for this guy. This type of behaviour cannot be classified as a "I made a mistake".

As the originator of the other thread, what disturbs me is the lack of media attention of this aggregous abuse of power, I didn't even discover this story until a week after it's passing! Perhaps it does not fit in with the security-at-all-costs/fortress mentality that seems to be gaining popularity down south. :confused: Having gone through that crossing and the one at Ft Erie many times while enroute to BUF, you get quite a mix of different personalities of the border guards there, a bunch on a power trip, others with a pickle up their a$$es, some who are both, while a few seem reasonable. Welcome to the USA!! :(

I have a personal opinion that the biggest arses of INS are posted on the actual borders.

What I'm trying to say is that I've come across pleasant INS agents at IAD and ORD: Where are you going? Thanks. Welcome and have a great day. In and out of the process in less than 30 seconds.

However, at YOW and YUL, I've had to deal with real arses that are on power trips. Once at YUL, I was wearing my gloves when I entered INS (I had just taken my heavy bags off the CNX belt) and the officer raised his voice thrice after I questioned him twice why he insisted on me taking off my gloves. I suppose that he would have sent me through secondary if I didn't comply with his third request. (I didn't want to find out since he looked like he wanted to show me who was boss.)

Arriving on a flight from AMS to ORD enroute to YYZ and YVR 2 years ago.

INS woman: Where are you going?
Me: Toronto, Canada.

INS: Why?
Me: Because I live there.

INS: Do you have proper ID?
Me: ?

INS: I said, do you have proper ID?
Me: Uh, you have my passport.

INS: No, I want to see proper ID.
Me: Isn't that a proper ID?

INS: No, I want to see a proper ID.
Me: Okay, here's my Driver's License, Care Card, SIC.

INS: No, I want to see a proper ID.
Me: (Scratching my head)????????

Me: Do you mean a Canadian Citizenship card?
INS: Yea.

Handing over the Citz card.

Me: Do you know that not everyone has the Canadian Citz card?
INS: No.

Me: And not everyone who has on carries it with them when they travel. We only use it for passport applications!
INS: I don't care. It ain't my country.

Me (thinking):You ain't very bright either...
Me: Thank you.
INS : Next!

I HATE HATE HATE going through the US. Some who are nice, are very nice. Some who aren't... well... they need to go back to finishing school and learn a few manners. And why is the US INS area at Canadian airports the "NO SMILE" zone?

In all my years of crossing the border into the US, I have never had a problem. For a while I lived in Canada and worked in the US and went back and forth daily - never a problem. Show them my passport, show them my Visa and in I go.

I find the bridges much easier to cross than any airport.

Oh yeah, he is not an INS agent as some folks here thought, but a customs officer - quite a difference.

(why even FlyerAl has only had trouble crossing once going to BUF and that was when he crossed the bridge 2 x in 3 hrs).

Um... for someone who is born in Canada, what the hell would they show? Even fewer people carry their birth certificate...

I wonder what she would have done had you not had your Citz card...

You should have also told her that she was dumb and a b!tch... :rolleyes:

mia-yyz
 

They are a bunch of fools. They shouted at me that I needed a Transit Visa and that I should not teach them American law. On my way from yyz-mia-gig(stop over in MIA) I was let through with no problems. On my back they detained me and photgraphed me and fingerprinted me, wanting to deport me to Brazil and then YYZ. Eventually after 12 hours I was sent to the other Terminal where another officer decides to revert the decision and let me stay in Miami before connecting to my YYZ flight. I am a Canadian citizen who was born in Singapore and am not a Muslim. Go figure. :confused:

Not surprising at that station. A friend of mine working in the U.S. on a TN visa told me he was constantly harassed each time he came back from Chile through MIA. One time, he got his problem very simply sorted out by a INS supervisor who told him, half-seriously, that "half (his) agents didn't know what they were doing".

3 weeks ago when I went down to Ontario California the INS guy in Calgary insisted that I put down the full address of the hotel I was staying at and he was really pissy about it. I told him I was being picked up by the American company that I was about to start working for to revieve training so I could help grow American jobs by selling their product in Canada and that I did not have the exact address of the hotel as they booked it. Boy he didn't like that answer :rolleyes: I eneded up just writing in the hotel name and city (that's all I knew) and he let me go but not before giving me a lecture on how to fill in my card. Gee, and to think that he was the only one in 9 years of travelling across the boarder to catch me on that. Wow, I have to tell you I felt so much safer on my trip nowing he was there enforcing that rule.

I haven't had much of a problem either, except for a few minor hiccups, but that doesn't change the fact that they are a$$holes.

I've been pretty lucky crossing the border too. There was only one time that I ever left primary inspection rolling my eyes, and that was after a 10 minute primary inspection driving across the border at Niagara Falls. I was flying to LAS from BUF for a couple days with a few buddies, who were in the car with me. We waited for 5 minutes while he interrogated the car in front of us, then sent that car to secondary. We watched car after car go through the lane next to us. It was so annoying that we wouldn't switch lanes. Finally it was our turn to bend over. First words out of his mouth "Driver! Put the car in park and roll down the rear window....". He was a young kid with a military haircut. Pretty much every question he asked was followed up immediately with 5 related questions trying to catch us in a lie. Did I mention that I have a TN? I swear, I spent 9 minutes and 30 seconds longer talking to him than I spent talking to the last guy who processed my TN at Fort Erie....GO FIGURE

Incidentally, I can't imagine what I would say if someone told me that a passport isn't proper ID, or that a Canadian needed a transit visa. Makes you wonder if the INS / Customs ever passes fake travelers through to test their border guards.

- Notam