Last Friday, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called upon the United States to end its problems with excessive police force and racial discrimination, reported Reuters.
“Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing,” said Noureddine Amir, CERD committee vice chairman.
The recommendation comes on the heels of the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown, whose death by cop prompted an eruption of protests and riots in Ferguson, Missouri, where the shooting took place, as well as cries for police demilitarization and racial awareness across the country.
An 18-person panel of independent experts “grilled” senior U.S. delegation in mid-August about the country’s problem with racial discrimination against blacks and other minorities, namely within America’s criminal justice system.
“The excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities is an ongoing issue of concern and particularly in light of the shooting of Michael Brown,” said Amir, an expert from Algeria.
The U.N. also took aim at America’s “Stand Your Ground” laws, which enable any citizen to use deadly force against another person provided that the citizen proves their life was in danger. However, the Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis cases, which both took place in Florida, caused gun control and civil rights advocates to question whether the laws have now been used frivolously, giving gun-crazed lunatics an excuse to use their guns.
The other main issue with “Stand Your Ground” laws is that many of those who’ve been killed by the hands of someone exercising the law were young, black teens. All the law seems to do is further charge America’s racial discrimination problem.
Accordingly, the U.N. panel insisted that “Stand Your Ground” laws should be reviewed to “remove far-reaching immunity and ensure strict adherence to principles of necessity and proportionality when deadly force is used for self-defense.”
America’s racism is now under the microscope of the entire world. Considering that, how can there be those who still say that racism doesn’t exist or that racism is a problem of the past? The fact is that they aren’t. Racism is not as overt as decades before, but it smolders in our society’s underbelly, occasionally erupting out in hot flashes. And that’s when things like Ferguson happen.
