Pernicious Persecutors

In the early morning hours of May 21, 2015, more than 10 FBI agents with guns drawn invaded the home of prominent physics professor Xiaoxing Xi, the chairman of the physics department of Temple University, and arrested the highly-honored scientist for allegedly spying for his native country of China. Agents handcuffed Xi in front of his wife and two children and paraded him for the television cameras and held him under $100,000 bond.

The massive show of force, at least to the local journalists, was “proof” that this mild-mannered physicist was nothing but another Chinese spy, and that, thank goodness, the feds were on the job. In its guilt-pronouncing broadcast, WPVI-TV of Philadelphia interviewed another local scientist who said: “I am shocked he was giving these details to people he was not supposed to.”

It turns out, however, that Xi, a National Science Foundation award winner, not only was innocent of the charges, but that federal authorities had engaged in sloppy research (if one can believe federal agents even are capable of researching anything) and wrote false information in the indictments. According to the New York Times:

For one, nobody from the U.S. Department of Justice offered an apology for what its employees had done to Dr. Xi, his family, his employer, and his reputation. No one believes he or she needs to explain why government agents had not done some basic research before launching a vilification campaign against a man who had a very good reputation for integrity.

Integrity, you see, is at the heart of the matter. No one from the DOJ has demonstrated any integrity. They dropped charges not because it was the right and moral thing to do, but rather because it became clear prosecutors and their so-called experts were incompetent and did not wish to look even more foolish. Furthermore, if they can find a way to harass Dr. Xi in the future, they will do just that.

The Department of Justice is an agency out of control. Its employees are incompetent (but venal), and when they ruin the lives of innocent people they blame the victims. Prosecutors and FBI agents like to portray themselves as heroes, but for the most part, they are common thugs and bullies. We can rejoice that Dr. Xi no longer is weighed down with false charges, but we weep for the next set of victims, and we know that the Xi setback won’t deter federal agents from seeking the lives of innocent people.