Many Americans are quick to get on the moral high ground to call out foreign governments for their human rights violations. But In our insistence on American Exceptionalism some Americans also insist on ignoring our own human right violations against American Citizens.
Just as we point out examples of human rights violations by foreign governments, we count the same kinds of violations in the United States. They include:
1. Massive incarceration of American Citizens, many for reasons that have nothing to do with justice and instead are examples of injustice, privatization, and greed..
2. Excessive use of lethal force against unarmed American citizens by American police.
3. Police brutality against compliant American citizens in police custody.
4. Militarized police brutality against unarmed American citizens exercising their constitutional right to political and civil protest.
5. Police State Mentality and violence against peaceful demonstrating American citizens.
America Is Home Of The Worlds Largest Prison Population.
America prides itself with being the "Land Of The Free". It is simple irony and pure hypocrisy when the "Land Of the Free" is the land of the worlds largest prison population. Data from 2011 reveal that with only 5% of the world's population, the United States Of America has 25% of the world's prison population. That is an obscene immoral statistic for a democracy where some politicians claim countries "hate us for our freedom".
The USA has more prison inmates per 100,000 people (Approximately 740/100,000) than the combined rates of Spain, UK, Italy, Greece, France, Ireland, and Germany.
The USA has almost 7,000,000 American citizens under some form of correctional supervision. These 7 Million serving sentences in prison or on parole or probation are more than the combined populations under correctional supervision in China, Russia, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa, England, and Japan.
Greed and corporate privatization of prisons is the root cause of much of the human right violations resulting in the incarceration of American citizens. Corporations running privatized prison are paid based upon the prison population. So to insure that their corporate benefactors maximized their profits, state legislators wrote laws that fill the prisons with inmates. Judges, some of whom are on the take; some of whom have been found guilty, do their best to make sure prisons are filled with inmates. This is the immoral social price of and greedy shame of privatization.
Thousands of American citizens are imprisoned for years for the simple act of possessing small amounts of marijuana for personal use. One man was given a life sentence for possession of two joints of marijuana. Thousands of children in elementary school , junior high school , and senior high school are locked up for minor school yard and minor school room infractions--infractions that historically got them sent home with a note to their parents, especially if they were white. Although this is still more likely for white children than it is for black and brown children. This isn't justice, it is injustice and human rights violations based on greed.
Excessive Use Of Lethal force
Amnesty International, who for years have fought for the release of political prisoners and the reduction of lethal force in countries not named The United States, recently made an appeal for the same in the United States Of America. To wit:
"There is a widespread and persistent problem of unnecessary or excessive force by police in the United States. The recent death of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford and many others have set off a long-overdue conversation on race, policing and justice as well as protest around the country."
"The UN Code of Conduct for Law enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials set out strict human rights safeguards for the use of force. These standards provide that law enforcement should only use force as a last resort and that the amount of force must be in proportion to the threat encountered and designed to minimize damage and injury. Amnesty International is concerned that state laws on the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers do not comply with international standards and is calling on all states to review and revise their use of lethal force statues in line with these standards."
These are the kinds of appeals that Americans often assumed needed to be written for foreign governments. But the United States of America, through increasing police brutality and militarized police force have witnessed rampant human rights violation with American police caught on camera killing unarmed American citizens who offered no form of resistance. Some were killed by police while lying on the ground with their hands handcuffed behind them. Others were killed while in police custody.
Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube have put a face on the "many other" human rights abuses Amnesty International USA mentioned. They include Christian Taylor, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Sarah Lee Circle Bear, Henry Rexdale, and John Crawford. But tens of thousands more have had their human rights violated by American police than have been recorded, reported, and mentioned by Amnesty International.
It is appropriate that The United States which advertises itself as a democracy that values life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should help citizens in foreign countries escape the tyranny and brutality of human rights violations. But shouldn't The United States Of America first begin to stop the tyranny and brutality of human rights violations within its own borders?.
