Police trample on human rights in United States

By Barbara Jean Hope

In a mailing entitled, "Human Rights Violations in the Heart of Democracy," Amnesty International outlines the increased violations by police officers in the United States against the populace.

The U.S. government styles itself for worldwide consumption as a champion of liberty and freedom. Yet, increasingly, the police force in the United States is guilty of rampant abuse that violates the human rights of the American people.

Internationally recognized and accepted human rights standards, most of which the U.S. has helped to formulate, don't apply across the board to those abused by the police in the U.S.

It is particularly egregious that those charged with upholding the law are increasingly violating the law with impunity.

Amnesty International states that the U.S. government "talks about international law and democratic values but it avoids scrutiny of its own human rights record. The U.S. government is ever eager to criticize and vilify its enemies' but much less willing to confront abuses by its allies."

To quote Amnesty International again: "Amnesty International is campaigning about police brutality in the USA because the problem is serious and widespread. Nations like the USA should practice what they preach - if they fail to do so, how can they expect the rest of the world to adhere to standards set by the United Nations?

If Amnesty International overlooked the human rights record of countries such as the U.S., undemocratic regimes would be given no incentive to improve human rights in the countries they govern.

In the context of social, racial, and economic imbalance, the reality is that justice and equality are often denied to minorities in the USA, and the right to life and liberty is frequently abused."

Amnesty International discovered historical and systematic police brutality in cities across the U.S. - the "land of the free and home of the brave."

Amnesty International is also making the world aware that police officers who perpetrate abuse and criminality against citizens (especially African American citizens) are rarely disciplined or prosecuted.

As most Americans know, and as Amnesty International found out, the majority of victims of police brutality are members of racially oppressed groups, African American, Native American, Asian, and Latino.

While there are more than 17,000 police agencies in the U.S., there is still no reliable national data about excessive use of force by the police.

Since 1994, the federal government has been legally obligated to gather data regarding human rights violations against the U.S. population from the police forces nationwide.

However, the right-wing-led Congress has successfully fought against funding the effort to find the effort to compile evidence in regard to police abuse of power.

Amnesty International listed areas of extreme concern in regard to police abuse amnesty Internationalist U.S. citizens:

Torture by police

Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, suffered serious internal injuries after New York police officers beat and sodomized him in August 1997. One officer rammed the handle of a toilet plunger into his rectum at a Brooklyn police station. Four officers have been charged in participating in abuse of Louima.

Trigger happy

Caroline Sue Botticher, an unarmed African American woman, died after police in West Charlotte, N.C., fired 22 rounds at the car in which she was a passenger when it failed to stop at a police checkpoint in April 1977. There was no evidence to suggest that anyone in the car was armed.

"Less-than-lethal" weapons

In July 1996, a 29-year-old woman, Kimberly Lashon Watkins, died in Pomona, Calif., after police shot her with a taser.

A taser is a hand-held "gun" which fires barbed hooks into a person's clothing and then sends up to 50,000 volts down the wires, causing extreme pain, convulsions, and incapacitation.

Excessive force

A peaceful environmental protester was hospitalized in June 1997 after Oregon police cut open his trousers and burned his legs and genitals with pepper spray which causes acute burning sensations, coughing, gagging, and shortness of breath.

Dangerous restraints

Between 1982 and 1992, 94 human beings died in police custody in San Diego, Calif., because of being restrained in neckholds or by being "hog-tied," having one's ankles and wrists tied together behind the back.

Stereotyping

In New York City, 23 Black police officers have been shot by fellow police officers since 1941. These Black officers were mistaken for suspects.

As Ron Hampton, director of the National Black Police Association, has said, "In a training video, every criminal is portrayed as Black."

These are simply a few of Amnesty International's findings in regard to rampant police abuse in the U.S. The studies began in 1996 with a damning report on police abuse in such cities as New York and Philadelphia.

The number of cases of abuse are steadily rising. The above examples are simply the tip of an iceberg that should sink the heart of, and propel to action, anyone at all concerned with human rights.

"International standards regulating police conduct repeat that force should only be used as a last resort, in proportion to the threat encountered and it should be designed to minimize injury."

Amnesty International said, "It is time that the U.S. government took steps to end human rights violations committed by U.S. police officers and made the police more accountable."

Write to Attorney General Janet Reno; Department of Justice; 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Room 440; Washington DC 20530-0001.

Barbara Jean Hope is a regular contributor
from Philadelphia.