US human rights abuses

The United States became known as “the land of the free” because that is how Francis Scott Key viewed his nation in 1814. It hung on as part of the American national anthem and became a favored phrase among Americans because of that, yet I find it astounding that today 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the land of the free. This is human rights abuse on a grand scale. The United States have significant history of human rights abuses:

• Illegal middle east wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the related violence in Syria cause at least 800,000 death due to direct war violence, including armed forces on all sides of the conflicts, contractors, civilians, journalists, and humanitarian workers. Over 335,000 civilians have been killed in direct violence by all parties to these conflicts.

• The US comprises 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of its incarcerated population. 2.2 million Americans have been incarcerated in US in 2016.The US has  greater proportion of citizens imprisoned than any other nation.The US no longer have slavery, yet many citizens are still treated like slaves.

This intense incarceration has not been evenly distributed throughout the general population. Black Americans are incarcerated at grossly disproportionate rates. Blacks make up nearly 40% of the incarcerated population but only approximately 13% of the general population of the US. Further, Black men are six times more likely  to be incarcerated as their white counterparts. These differential incarceration rates are largely due to racial differences in the application of drug laws. Of the more than 700,000 marijuana arrests made each year, for instance, Black people are four times more likely to be arrested than their White counterparts.This is despite the fact that Blacks and Whites use the drug at similar rates.If current incarceration trends continue, it is estimated that one in three Black men will experience incarceration at some point during their lifetimes.

• Indefinite detention. The Patriot Act permits indefinite detention and strip citizens of legal protections based on its sole discretion.

• Worst gun violence in the world, total, 39,052 people died from gun-related violence in US in 2019

• Death Sentence with 2,656 people in death row in US in 2019. People with serious mental and intellectual disabilities continued to be subjected to the death penalty in violation of international law.

• Systematic racism.Black people face systematic discrimination in the US 150 years after slavery was abolished. Black people have less education, less wealth, poorer health and shorter lifespans.

• Police brutality. The death of George Floyd at the hands of US police officers has triggered worldwide protests against police brutality. US protestors have largely been met with further violence from the police.

• Surveillance and loss of privacy. The US use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows  warrantless surveillance of foreign people and entities overseas, as well as the capture and search of Americans communications in the process.

• Torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and black sites, and extrajudicial targeted killings

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jan/04/trump-administration-un-human-rights-violations

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/united-states-of-america/report-united-states-of-america/

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/humanrights/2020/08/12/racism-police-violence-and-mass-incarceration-the-legacies-of-slavery-and-segregation-in-the-united-states/

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/united-states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_United_States