China's US Human Rights Report Is Ugly, But It's No Caricature
Saturday, April 9, 2005 at 06:15PM
TheSpook
The New York Times was outraged that
China, a human rights outlaw, would criticize America’s human rights
record, but the Chinese report is in fact right on target, and should
shame all Americans who care about the state of our own rights and
freedoms. American society is characterized by rampant violent
crimes, severe infringement of people's rights by law enforcement
departments and lack of guarantee of the right to life, liberty and
security, the Chinese report said, noting that in addition to the
threats from uniformed law enforcement, some 31,000 Americans were
killed by firearms last year. The report also noted America's record
two million prison inmates, and the fact that three times that many are
on parole or probation. Caricature? Hardly. The number of people being
jailed in the U.S. is a national scandal, particularly considering the
percentage who are black and Latino, and the fact that most are there
for non-violent offenses. And no surprise there: Nearly every time I am
on the road and see a car pulled over by a trooper, I discover that the
driver is Black. Unless blacks are uniquely prone to speeding, there is
an epidemic of racial profiling, and it's not limited to highways. [more]
- Pictured above: Tourist Zhao Yan, a Chinese businesswoman who was Beat Down by Homeland Security Officers at the U.S.-Canadian
border on July 21, 2005. Witnesses
said Officer Robert Rhodes, 43, used pepper spray on 37-year-old Zhao Yan, threw her
against a wall, kneed her in the head as she knelt on the ground and
struck her head on the ground while holding her hair. [more]
- US lines up action against Cuba in UN rights body [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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