Tue 27 April 2021:
An international commission of inquiry investigating the systematic killing and maiming of unarmed African Americans by the US police, said police actions constitute crimes against humanity and should be investigated and prosecuted under international law, according to a report released on Tuesday.
In the 188-page report, the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the United States comprising legal experts from 11 countries, called on the “Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court… to initiate an investigation into Crimes against Humanity.”
The commission examined cases of disproportionate use of excessive force by police that resulted in the deaths of 43 African Americans in the United States.
“This unlawful disproportionate use of force included shooting and the use of restraints and Tasers. The Commissioners find an alarming, national pattern of disproportionate use of deadly force not only by firearms but also by Tasers against people of African descent,” the report read.
Among its other findings, the commission accuses the US of the use of force against unarmed African Americans during traffic and investigatory stops that is “driven by racial stereotypes and racial biases resulting in U.S. law enforcement agencies routinely targeting people of African descent for questioning, arrest and detention based on racist associations between Blackness and criminality.”
The international commission of inquiry was launched amid a wave of US police killings of African Americans throughout the country that attracted an unprecedented attention of the international community.
Last week, the US Justice Department announced it had opened an investigation into the policing practices by the Minneapolis Police Department, a day after a jury found police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all accounts in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, last May.
Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes in a video that went viral and sparked worldwide protests. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison on all three charges.
-Sputnik
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
