Police Brutality
There is a widespread and persistent problem of police brutality across the United States. Thousands of individual complaints about police abuse are reported each year and local authorities pay out millions of dollars to victims in damages after lawsuits. Police officers have beaten and shot unresisting suspects; they have misused batons, chemical sprays, and electro-shock weapons; they have injured or killed people by placing them in dangerous restraint holds.
This is the first paragraph of an unprecedented and historic report, USA: Rights for All, issued by Amnesty International (AI) on October 6, 1998. Simultaneously, the organization announced the theme of its U.S. education campaign: "Human rights aren't just a foreign affair."
For many--myself included--this is a long-awaited and irrefutable confirmation of the alarming state of human rights in America. Indeed, this report leaves no doubt whatsoever that American law enforcement agencies--including the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the prison system--must be immediately reined in, fundamentally reformed, and held accountable to the citizens who literally entrust them with their lives.
AI's report confirms that the overwhelming majority of victims of law enforcement abuses are members of racial and ethnic minorities, while most police departments remain predominantly white. Relations between the police and members of minority communities--especially young black and Latino males in inner-city areas--are often tense, and racial bias is reported or a factor in many instances. The report continues:
Unarmed suspects have been shot while fleeing from minor crime scenes; mentally ill or disturbed people have been subjected to excessive force; police have shot distraught people armed with weapons such as knives or sticks, in circumstances suggesting that they could have been subdued without lethal force; victims have been shot many
This is the first paragraph of an unprecedented and historic report, USA: Rights for All, issued by Amnesty International (AI) on October 6, 1998. Simultaneously, the organization announced the theme of its U.S. education campaign: "Human rights aren't just a foreign affair."
For many--myself included--this is a long-awaited and irrefutable confirmation of the alarming state of human rights in America. Indeed, this report leaves no doubt whatsoever that American law enforcement agencies--including the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the prison system--must be immediately reined in, fundamentally reformed, and held accountable to the citizens who literally entrust them with their lives.
AI's report confirms that the overwhelming majority of victims of law enforcement abuses are members of racial and ethnic minorities, while most police departments remain predominantly white. Relations between the police and members of minority communities--especially young black and Latino males in inner-city areas--are often tense, and racial bias is reported or a factor in many instances. The report continues:
Unarmed suspects have been shot while fleeing from minor crime scenes; mentally ill or disturbed people have been subjected to excessive force; police have shot distraught people armed with weapons such as knives or sticks, in circumstances suggesting that they could have been subdued without lethal force; victims have been shot many