Sunday Times 2
The Ferguson riots and American nightmare
The recent civil riots in Ferguson, Missouri underscores the fact that all is not well in the criminal justice system and police action in the United
Protesters march as they call for a thorough investigation of the shooting death of teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on a street in front of the White House in Washington on Thursday. Reuters
States. A recent survey showed that around 75 per cent of the Afro-Amercan and Hispanic people had no confidence in the investigation process of the police in relation to incidents in which non-whites are involved. This figure has not seen any appreciable change for past 25 years while the Americans have been boasting of increased social mobility.
Restricting our scrutiny to last 25 years, we witness the US establishment being rudely shaken by civil disturbances in 1992 when the verdict was announced of Rodney King’s killing. This was followed by the Cincinnati riots of 2001. Then the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012 and Eric Garner in New York this year again triggered rioting by the African-Americans. It is obvious that such responses do not take place among the young white men as young Black and Hispanic men are racially stereotyped as trouble makers. They are of course subjected to constant and increased searches and arrests. In Furguson in 2013, 86 per cent of the vehicle stops and 92 per cent of the searches and arrests involved Black people.
Many segments of Black people and other minorities also suffer from direct and indirect racial abuse in the day-to-day lives and they are badly hit by the economic downturn. Their educational standards are inferior to the average White man and they are compelled to live within restricted opportunities. In short a majority of the Black and Hispanic people remain left behind.
Meanwhile, the American state is rapidly moving towards a strong and deadly bureaucracy. In fact, of late a number of writers have pointed out that the US is fast moving towards “a Police State”. One writer lamented, “We are operating in a topsy-turvy Sherwood Forest where instead of Robin Hood and his merry band of thieves stealing from the rich to feed the poor, you have got a government and its merry band of corporate thieves stealing from the poor to fatten the wallets of the rich. In this way the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. All the while the American dream of peace and prosperity and liberty has turned into a nightmare of endless wars, debilitating debt and outright tyranny.” In such a scenario, the worst affected are the Blacks and the Hispanics who are at the bottom of the social ladder.
The American Corporate state’s attempt to make money at the expense of its own people is well explained by the information relating to handing over of the prisons to private companies. “The Correction Corporation of America has offered to buy and manage public prisons in 48 states. The offer includes the expectation of prisoner population of at least 1000 prisoners per prison and the states would have to maintain 90% occupancy for at least 20 years. This has led to phenomenon of criminalisation in which mundane activities are criminalised resulting in jail sentences.” One can, of course, realise how the disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic people end up in American prisons compelling them to serve repeated jail sentences and often forced to be part of the dangerous under world rings.
The response of the Black people clearly shows their frustrations for having been social outcasts for innumerable years and America’s social aberrations are still open and growing.
When the US Ambassador keeps on actively commenting and involving herself in highlighting unruly incidents in Sri Lanka with her tongue in cheek agenda, one should remind her about the plight of the Blacks and Hispanic people and their utter frustrations manifested in racial riots caused by outrage against the police killings including frequent illegal harassments.