U-N Compares Police Shootings of Blacks to Lynchings

A United Nations group says the rash of killings of Black people by police is similar to the way Blacks were lynched during slave days and the 20th century.  The group says in its report by the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, “Contemporary police killings and the trauma that they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching”.  The report also estimates between  the years of 1877 and 1950, close to four-thousand Black people were murdered in what the report calls, “racial terror lynchings”.

TheU–N group says it is “extremely concerned” about the human rights situation of African-Americans”—and so are African Americans.  It’s the reason hundreds have filed into the streets of Charlotte N.C. following the fatal police shooting  of another Black man who his family claims suffered from a brain injury, but police claim had a gun and was smoking a blunt.   Under mounting pressure from protesters and the mayor, Charlotte police  finally released dash and body cam videos surrounding the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott last week. The video doesn’t really support or dismiss police claims that Scott was carrying a gun.  We see Scott get out of the car, but his actions don’t appear threatening and then officers start screaming “Drop the gun” which we don’t see in Scott’s right hand on the video, but his wife says he was right handed.  Police say the gun was strapped in an ankle holster, but Scott was standing with his hands at his sides, not reaching for his ankle.

Two videos were released, but not one single answer to what really happened is apparent after watching them.  The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation is now leading the criminal investigation to what really happened that lead police to open fire on Scott.  It’s shootings like Scott’s and that of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa that are leading the U-N group to such harsh criticisms of what’s happening in the U.S. saying that “Impunity for State violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”  There’s no denying the shootings have gone beyond the “urgent” level and have eroded race relations with no plans of reconciliation in sight.

The U-N is recommending education “accompanied by acts of reconciliation” to deal with the racial injustices.

It’s sad that the country that prides itself on democracy and equality has to be scolded by the U-N to get its act together and stop brutalizing Blacks.  Now the question is will America’s stain of racism as seen by the global eye of U-N countries be enough to finally address the police shootings and the deeper problem of racism?  Or do you think America will continue to allow the police shootings to tear the country apart?