In “World Report 2016: Events of 2015,” experts criticize U.S. police practices and become yet another international body bringing the plight of Blacks in America onto the international stage.
“Once again, high-profile police killings of unarmed African Americans gained media attention in 2015, including the deaths of Freddy Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina,” the report said.
“The federal government does not maintain a full count of the number of people killed by police each year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed in 2015 that it tracks only 35 to 50 percent of arrest-related deaths on an annual basis. A new federal law incentivizes the collection of data regarding deaths in police custody, but does not require states to provide that data and so fails to ensure reliable data on people killed by police,” it continued.
The document focused on harsh sentencing, racial disparities in criminal justice, drug reform, police reform, prison and jail conditions, poverty and criminal justice, and youth in the criminal justice system. It also tackled the rights of non-citizens, labor rights, right to health, rights of people with disabilities, women’s and girls’ rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, national security, and foreign policy.
Last May, it further noted, President Barack Obama’s Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group released recommendations to better regulate and restrict the transfer of Defense Department equipment to local law enforcement.
Human Rights Watch criticism of police brutality comes on the heels of a recommendation of reparations for Blacks in America by the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.
“We appreciate the work of Human Rights Watch and their solidarity, but on this issue, it has been addressed by the U.N. and will be addressed in September, and we want folks to just know that it’s the work of the people at the bottom, the grassroots community, the people directly impacted, and the Justice Or Else LOC! (Local Organizing Committee) that has brought this to the forefront of the U.N.,” stated Willie “J.R.” Fleming, longtime activist and member of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Chicago Justice Or Else! LOC.
“We support the efforts of Human Rights Watch, but we don’t want folks trying to jump in and take credit for the work that Blacks folks have done. That’s the danger of people releasing counter reports after the U.N. left, because history can be easily miswritten,” the activist argued passionately.