An alleged criminal, when challenged by the police, tried to reach for a policeman’s gun to shoot him when the policeman had to open fire on the alleged criminal to protect himself. The criminal was, unfortunately, shot in his head, dying right on the spot.
This version of the story is one of the most common communiqués provided by law enforcers in any of the violence-riddled countries around the world. And, most of the Western countries, concerned about human rights, criticise the government of countries where this sort of encounters between criminals and law enforcers occur.
Very often, developed countries raise their voices against extrajudicial killings in other countries and even take strict steps to put an end to such violations of human rights. In early 2014, the United States refused to train any Bangladeshi RAB official because of the spate of allegations of human rights violations against the force.
Surprisingly, the incident depicted above had occurred on August 9 in the country which notified that individuals of RAB were ineligible for any further training and assistance because of their acts of gross violation of human rights: The United States. Michael Brown, a black American teenager, was shot dead by Daren Wilson, a police officer of Ferguson Police a week ago.
The killing of the teenager has enraged the African American community who are protesting the murder since it took place this year. The extra judicial killing of Michael Brown has rocked the suburbs of Saint Louis since the death with violent protests began. The protesters are alleging that the police had killed the boy because of his colour.
The police and other law enforcement agencies were forced to fire tear gas canisters at the protesters. Frequent clashes in the city compelled the government to declare emergency in Ferguson and impose a curfew. Ferguson is a city comprising chiefly of African Americans but with an overwhelmingly white police force and city administration.
Though the city’s police, as a move to justify the killing, previously claimed that Michael Brown was accused of stealing cigars from a convenience store, the reason behind stopping him on his way home was not that. Rather, he was stopped by a police official for jaywalking and was asked to use the sidewalk.
According to a witness, the police officer, who was leaving the spot, suddenly drove back and tried to get out of the car while the car-door, as the car was adjacent to the murdered, hit Brown and his friend. The officer took it as an offence and shot at them from his squad car. The bullet missed them and the officer grabbed the neck of the deceased. As he refused to go with him and the officer and Brown struggled, the policeman shot him, leaving him dead.
The independent autopsy report found six bullets in the body of Michael Brown, with two in his head. One of the bullets had entered his head and came out through his eye; another, likely the fatal wound, struck Brown on the top of his head and caused irreparable damage to his brain. However, the autopsy report also suggested that there was actually no altercation, and the boy was in an indefensible position.
The brutality of the United States police force’s encounter with a teenager should not be undermined. According to a 2004 HBO documentary, over 700 of the people who reside in the United States were detained on suspicions of terrorist activities within only two years since September 11, 2011. All of them were denied due process. Very recently, an Indian diplomat was disgracefully harassed by American police.
African Americans are also victims of regular harassment. The widespread protests in the United States refers that the incident is not a scattered one. The African Americans who took to the streets are holding placards with different slogans like “Hands up,” “Don’t shoot me,” “Why always we,” “Am I next?” Such slogans show the extent of fear that they harbour about their future in the Unites States. Apparently, African Americans have never felt this insecure since the dissolution of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1870s.
Amid public hue and cry, President Barack Obama had to address his countrymen on this incident. The president asked people to calm down, promising to take necessary steps with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) having been given the charge to look into the case.
Shockingly, the United States, fighting for human rights worldwide, is now rocked by protests for their own failures in preserving the human rights of the people of their own country. Their own citizens are now in danger, and the government and their best intelligence agencies have failed to illustrate a clear image of what had taken place that night, even after nearly two weeks of the murder.
When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 by American police for not giving up her seat to a white American, sparking the Montgomery bus boycotts and resulting in the United States District Court ruling that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses, Martin Luther King Jr came up with a dream for a new America, one where people will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the strength of their character. He dreamed of an America where the black boys and black girls will be like brothers and sisters to the white boys and white girls of America.
Martin Luther King Jr died in 1968, but after the election of 2008, when the Americans decided to elect Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States, it seemed that his dreams had not died. It appeared that white Americans are ready to accept African Americans as their brothers and sisters. Now, it seems that dream has been shattered. The United States still has a long way to go.
