2023-04-27 03:04:56
Starting from the 24th local time, the expert group of the “Expert Mechanism for Advancing Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement” appointed by the UN Human Rights Council began to visit 6 cities in the United States for a period of two weeks. and other long-standing problems to investigate.
△ Screenshot of British “Guardian” website report
The expert group was established in response to widespread protests in May 2020 following Freud, an African-American man, was killed on his knees by white police officers.
The United Nations stated that the expert panel will review the relevant legal basis and law enforcement procedures for the use of force by US law enforcement officials, judge whether they comply with international human rights standards, and make recommendations to support efforts to combat systemic racism and excessive use of force.
It is reported that this group will submit an investigation report at the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council this fall.
“This system has been established since the day the United States existed”
Many Americans are looking forward to the arrival of the UN investigation team.
Colette Flanagan, founder of the “Mothers Against Police Brutality” organization, said that “extrajudicial killings” are becoming more and more common in American policing. Her son was killed by the police in 2013. The deadly atrocities committed by the United States are a major violation of human rights, and people of African descent suffer the most.”
She hopes that the UN inquiry team will actually urge the US government to fulfill its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights conventions.
△ Screenshot of British “Guardian” website report
However, the prospect of whether this desire repeatedly expressed by the American people can be realized is not optimistic.
The Floyd incident has sparked anti-racism and anti-police violence protests across the United States. However, nearly three years have passed, and the fate of African-Americans has not changed in the slightest.
Not long before the arrival of the United Nations investigation team, the special grand jury in Summit County, Ohio, USA had just completed its investigation into the death of an African-American caused by police brutality.
But they concluded that the use of force by the eight police officers involved in the shooting and killing of African-American man Gerald Walker in Akron, the county, last June was “justified in law” and should not be punished. accused.
△Screenshot of the NBC report (Jerland Walker is on the left side of the title picture)
A large number of similar tragedies have long proved that police violence once morest African Americans is not an independent phenomenon, but an old wound rooted in the national tradition of systemic racism in the United States.
Under the long-term negative influence of repeated violent law enforcement by the police and the fact that those involved are rarely held criminally responsible, the American police are increasingly inclined to act in accordance with “internal rules” in the process of law enforcement, resulting in repeated unnecessary killings.
△US “Police Violence Map” website: As of the last data update on April 15, 320 people have been killed by the police in the United States this year. African Americans, who account for only 13% of the total U.S. population, accounted for 26% of all victims.
The huge public opinion pressure caused by Floyd’s death once forced the US government to propose the “George Floyd Policing Fairness Act”, which aims to strengthen accountability for police misconduct.
However, under the political reality of polarized partisanship, not only this bill has long been aborted, but other related police reform efforts have also been stifled.
△Associated Press: On April 19, local time, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted 229 in favor and 189 once morest, deciding to prevent the Washington, D.C., “Comprehensive Police and Judicial Reform Amendment” bill from taking effect.
Facts have shown that in this “world’s most powerful country” that originated from racist atrocities such as the extermination of aborigines and the enslavement of African Americans, the genes of white supremacy and the survival of the strong have long been deeply rooted in every inch of the system, culture and society.
As the African-American author Susan Williams Smith puts it, the founders of the United States were “conspirators” in the practice of slavery in this country, pushing policies and practices that were clearly discriminatory from the start African-Americans, and shaped the American police system on this basis.
△The article “Understanding the History of American Policing and Police Violence once morest African-American Communities” by Susan Williams Smith published by the non-profit organization “The Way of the People of America”
‘We seem to be sleepwalking towards disaster’
The injustice suffered by African Americans in the US law enforcement and judicial system is only a prominent part of the “systemic injustice” in the United States once morest vulnerable groups.
The United States has the most serious wealth gap in the Western world.
The racial wealth gap has widened since the 1980s, and the current situation is close to the level before the end of apartheid in the 1950s.
△US “Market Watch” website: The latest report released by the international poverty alleviation and development organization “Oxfam” shows that the wealth of American billionaires has increased by nearly one-third compared with the beginning of the new crown epidemic in 2020; There is a “permanent underclass,” with nearly a third of American workers earning less than $15 an hour, and half of minority women earning even less than that.
The failure of the United States to provide universal health care has exacerbated the harm that the wealth gap has caused minorities.
As one of the western countries that does not implement universal medical insurance, the price of medicine and medical care in the United States ranks among the highest in the world. Affected by this, it is much more difficult for African American patients to obtain effective medical services than white patients.
△”USA Today”: Alanna Morris, associate professor of medicine at Emory University in the United States, and Robert Bloom, a researcher at the Aspen Research Institute in the United States, recently published a paper revealing that the proportion of African Americans dying of heart failure is much higher than that of whites , The reason lies in the long-standing systemic racism in the United States and the poverty problems faced by African-American groups.
More studies have shown that poverty has become the fourth leading cause of death for Americans. Minorities, on the other hand, are more likely to be impoverished and thus have shorter life expectancy.
△Screenshot of the research report released by the University of California
However, under the trend of political polarization, the Democratic and Republican parties are sharply opposed on almost all issues.
Gun control, abortion, immigration, infrastructure construction, climate change response, medical care and other areas of social security that are related to the basic rights of the people have all become bargaining chips for politicians to seek self-interest, making the “systematic injustice” in the United States delayed. Unresolved and constantly magnified.
Some Australian media pointed out that if measured by the recognized indicators such as the Gini coefficient, income inequality in the United States has increased significantly in the past 30 years.
According to the calculation of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States has the largest gap between rich and poor among the G7 countries. This reflects a structural disparity in America that is most pronounced among African-Americans.
△Screenshot of the Australian “Dialogue” news network report
“Washington Post” columnist Max Bout once wrote in an article that Americans are already living in a country where democracy has regressed. Various human rights violations are taking place in the United States, which is an ominous sign.
“The persistence of racism and wealth disparity, far more gun violence than in other developed countries, is a condemnation of American democracy… We seem to be sleepwalking toward disaster.”
△”Washington Post” report screenshot
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