Anthony Baez was playing football with his brothers one December evening in New York in 1994. The football accidentally hit a parked patrol car. An infuriated police officer grabbed Anthony and held him by the neck, then other officers knelt on his back as he lay down on the ground. Anthony choked to death. It emerged that the officer had a long history of brutality - there were at least 14 prior complaints against him - yet he was still on duty. He was put on trial but acquitted. The tragedy of Anthony's family is not isolated - the United States Justice Department receives thousands of complaints of police abuse each year. Many feel this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Amnesty International does not assert that federal, state or local authorities pursue policies deliberately designed to repress particular groups or violate human rights. It probes deeper to affirm that the wide variety of jurisdictions across the country, practices persist which result in real and serious abuses. Some arise from individual misconduct, encouraged by an institutionalised failure to hold officials accountable. Others result from inadequate systems of control or an outright refusal to recognise or respect international standards for human rights protection. In some cases, economic policies and political trends are creating conditions in which these violations are becoming more widespread and increasingly severe.
Systematic brutality by policemen has been uncovered by inquiries into some of the largest urban police departments. In each case, the authorities ignored routine abuses. In each case, police officers had covered up misconduct by fellow officers. Majority of the victims have been members of racial or ethnic minorities. Many dies, many were seriously injured, others deeply traumatised. Each year local authorities dish out millions of dollars in compensation to victims, yet successful prosecutions of police officers are rare.
There is even more violence behind the walls of prisons and jails. Where more than 1.7 million people are incarcerated, some prisoners are abused by other inmates with guards failing to protect them. Others are assaulted by the guards themselves. Women and men are subjected to both sexual and physical abuse. Overcrowded and underfunded prisons, many of them privatised, control inmates by isolating them for long periods and by using methods of restraint that are cruel, degrading and sometimes life-threatening. Victims include pregnant women, the mentally ill and even children.
Though the US was built by immigrants and claims to stand against oppression and persecution, US authorities themselves have been persistently violating the fundamental rights of people who have been forced by persecution to leave their countries and seek asylum. As if they were criminals, many asylum-seekers are placed behind bars when they arrive in the country. Some are held in shackles. They are detained indefinitely in conditions that are sometimes inhuman and degrading.
International human rights standards exist for the protection of all people throughout the world, and the US has been centrally involved in their development. Some are legally-binding treaties, others represent the consensus of the international community on the minimum standards which all states should adhere to. While successive US governments have used these international human rights standards as a yardstick to judge other countries, Amnesty International argues that they have not consistently applied those same standards at home.
It is difficult to believe that the global upholders and staunch advocates of human rights cannot practice what they preach in their own backyard. But now we know why the great purveyors of human rights and the vehement critics of rights abuses in communist and erstwhile Communist countries never raise a voice of concern over unabated throttling of democratic norms and practices in the Gulf countries. The fault does not lie in the stars - the fault lies with them, they are the underlings. The hallowed are, after all, hollow.
Review: Rights for All
