Chinese tourist awarded US$461,000

[Randy W]

This was from an incident in 2004 - in the SCMP. The lawsuit was filed in 2006, and the ruling came on Monday.

 

Chinese tourist awarded US$461,000 after violent false arrest by US border agent at Niagara Falls

Border agents mistakenly thought Zhao Yan was part of a drug gang in the 2004 incident

 

A Tianjin business owner and piano teacher, Zhao had been in the United States on a business visa to study the market for wood in Pennsylvania, court documents show. She was sightseeing as a tourist at Niagara Falls when the confrontation occurred.

In charging Rhodes, government prosecutors claimed he used excessive force when he used pepper spray on Zhao, put his knee on her back and drove her head into the pavement. But during the 2015 civil trial, US authorities said Zhao’s injuries were her own fault because she ran from the officer and then kicked, punched and scratched him before two other officers arrived and helped restrain her on the ground.

The then 38-year-old Zhao and two other women had run from the inspection station, instead of obeying officers’ orders to come inside after they detained a drug suspect they thought may have been with the women. Zhao said she ran because the officers frightened her.

 

 

 

[Greg.D.]

Article says the customs agents claimed they needed three guys to hold down the petite piano teacher.

 

Glad she finally had some resolution.

[amberjack1234]

These guys can get overzealous sometimes and some have authoritative issues=Chinese women propensity to get upset quite easily sometime and get a little loud. I can see this situation escalating quickly. Glad that she was vindicated.

[True Blue]

These guys can get overzealous sometimes and some have authoritative issues=Chinese women propensity to get upset quite easily sometime and get a little loud. I can see this situation escalating quickly. Glad that she was vindicated.

I can believe it. I can personally relate an experience at Niagra Falls.

 

We crossed the border at Niagra Falls reentering the USA back from a road trip to Canada several years ago. The US border agents waived other cars through but when they saw my wife was Chinese, trunks were opened, seats were checked for false bottoms, mirrors under the gas tank etc and we were detained for almost a full hour, searched, patted down etc. A female office patted down my wife.

 

I was never treated like that at any other border whether in Mexico, Latin America, China or Europe. My wife said that was the only time she thought she was treated as if she was a criminal. The border agents kept asking us why we went (tourism), where we went, when and again why we went. It reminded me of a movie interrogation.

 

True Blue

[Allon]

It goes both ways around the Niagara/Upper NY border. Crossing to Canada, you had better answer every question exactly as asked, no jokes, no smirky smiles, dead serious. Otherwise they will field strip your car right if front of you.

 

And there is a is a pretty frisky business of Asian women kidnapping and slavery going on and going both ways.