An extensive new report
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/usa-unlawful-use-of-force-by-police-at-black-lives-matter-protests/
released Tuesday morning by human rights group Amnesty International
finds that between May 26 and June 5, local, state, and federal law
enforcement officials in 40 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. committed
more than 125 separate acts of violence against demonstrators who
gathered in the streets en masse to protest the police killing of George
Floyd.
Law enforcement officials “consistently violated human rights out on the
streets instead of fulfilling their obligations to respect and
facilitate the right of people to peacefully protest,” said Amnesty,
which published an interactive map
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/usa-unlawful-use-of-force-by-police-at-black-lives-matter-protests/
containing video evidence of police officers beating, teargassing, and
firing rubber bullets at protesters.
“The analysis is clear: when activists and supporters of the Black Lives
Matter movement took to the streets in cities and towns across the
country to peacefully demand an end to systemic racism and police
violence, they were overwhelmingly met with a militarized response and
more police violence,” Brian Castner, senior crisis adviser on arms and
military operations at Amnesty International, said in a statement
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/06/23/amnesty-international-documents-widespread-police-violence-against-protesters.
In the process of compiling its detailed report, Amnesty examined more
than 500 videos and photos posted to social media in recent weeks as
demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice spread
across the U.S. and around the world following Floyd’s killing on May 25.
“This digital content was then verified, geolocated, and analyzed by
investigators with expertise in weapons, police tactics, and
international and U.S. laws governing the use of force,” Amnesty said.
“In some cases, researchers were also able to interview victims and
confirm police conduct with local police departments.”
The resulting report documents what the group describes as a “dizzying
array of violations by law enforcement across the country.”
Amnesty’s analysis includes vivid and appalling firsthand accounts of
police brutality by demonstrators who were present when law enforcement
indiscriminately fired tear gas and projectiles into crowds. Lizzie
Horne, a Rabbinical student, offered the following anecdote:
Out of the blue, they started breezing pepper spray into the crowd.
There was one officer on the median who was spraying as well. Then
they started with tear gas. Someone who was right in the front—who
had a tear gas canister hit his head—started running back. And we
were trying to help him, flushing his eyes and then he just fainted
and started having a seizure. He came to pretty quickly. As we were
finally lifting him up and started getting him out of the way, they
started launching more tear gas; that's when people started to get
really scared. They started gassing in a kettle formation—we were
against a big fence that people had to jump over, up a steep hill.
The fence was maybe six feet tall. People started putting their
hands up—but the cops wouldn't let up. It was can after can after
can. We were encapsulated in gas. We were drooling and coughing
uncontrollably.
Then the cops came from the other side of the fence and started
gassing from that direction. After that, the police started coming
up the hill and... they were hitting and tackling people. They were
dragging people down the hill and forcing them down on their knees,
lining them up kneeling on the median on the highway with their
hands in zip ties, and pulling down their masks and spraying and
gassing them again.Ernest Coverson, End Gun Violence Campaign manager for Amnesty
International USA, said in a statement that the new research “shows that
the police will stop at nothing to squash protesters.”
“Giving law enforcement weapons of war creates an endless cycle of
violence that disproportionately affects Black people,” said Coverson.
“No one had to lose their eyesight, get sick, or forever fear the police
because they wanted to say that Black lives matter. It’s time to end
these human rights violations once and for all.”
Amnesty suggested a number of specific reforms that it said would help
stem widespread human rights abuses by law enforcement:
- Stop extrajudicial executions of Black people by police and bring
accountability for their deaths through independent, impartial
investigations that lead to reparations for the victims and survivors; - Pass federal legislation, like the PEACE Act, to restrict police use
of force to only what is strictly necessary and proportionate in
order to limit the use of deadly force; - Pass federal legislation to demilitarize the police by eliminating
the 1033 program; - Ban the use of chokeholds and other maneuvers that cut off blood and
oxygen to the brain, including neck holds, chokeholds, and similar
excessive force. Such use force should be considered a federal civil
rights violation; - Prohibit the use of no knock warrants, particularly for drug searches;
- Change the intent standard requirement from “willfulness” to
“recklessness,” permitting prosecutors to successfully hold law
enforcement accountable for depriving people of their civil rights
and civil liberties; - End the qualified immunity doctrine, which prevents police from
being legally held accountable when they break the law; and - Ensure the right to peaceful protest against police violence,
without the threat of protesters, journalists, or bystanders being
targeted by further police violence.
“Real, systemic, and lasting police reform is needed at all levels to
ensure that people across the country feel safe to walk the streets and
express their opinions freely and peacefully without facing a real
threat of harm from the very officers that are supposed to protect
them,” said Brian Griffey, USA researcher and adviser at Amnesty.
“This is a Constitutional right that is mirrored in international human
rights law; to deny this right with physical violence, tear gas, and
pepper spray is a hallmark of repression,” Griffey added.
Article written by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams staff writer
Source: Common Dreams 6/23/20 https://www.commondreams.org/