Hang in there, sweetie
If you’re a customs agent, and you suspect that the Chinese female tourist is somehow associated with the guy you just arrested for pot smuggling, and even if she runs away, that does not miraculously give you the right to beat the living shit out of her.
Turns out she had nothing to do with the guy arrested for pot smuggling. Turns out she witnessed the arrest, and she’s from a wicked totalitarian dictatorship, she saw a bunch of guys with guns and uniforms running after her, and she thought they were angry that she had witnessed the arrest. Hey, if you were in China, and a bunch of armed Chinese officers started chasing you, would you run? Would you stop? In that split-second you’d have to decide, would you be thinking clearly?
She had done nothing wrong. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and met up with the wrong guy - a guy whose first reaction wasn’t legally to subdue her, given his suspicions, and take her into custody. Instead, he beat her so as to render her unrecognizable.
His defense? Not that he used reasonable force - because that would be obvious bullshit to any jury. Not that the battery was otherwise justified - it wasn’t. His defense is that he’s being persecuted unfairly because he’s gay. He says he just pepper-sprayed her. Pepper spray makes your eyes burn. It doesn’t give you bruises and welts. His fellow officers won’t even back him up: they testified that they were handcuffing Zhao when Rhodes kneed her head into the concrete floor. Nice guy.
Whatever. He’s going to be convicted.
But here’s my question: why the fuck is “psychic” Bernice “hang in there, sweetie” Golden (as heard on the Sandy Beach variety hour) holding a rally in support of the unjustified batterer?
