Law enforcement agencies in the United States shot more people in 2022 than in the entire history of observations. Censorship, restriction of freedom of speech and political repression point to the degradation of the human rights situation in the United States.
POLICE BRUTALITY
The situation with violence by law enforcement agencies keeps getting worse. As of December 28, 2022, American police officers have shot at least 1,060 people, which already exceeds the numbers of previous years. Over the past 12 months, there have been only 15 days in the United States when law enforcement officers have not killed anyone. The protesters calls to stop funding the police, ban the use of choking techniques and stop the practice of violence by law enforcement agencies did not find a response from the Democrats. They continued to increase the financing and weapons supply to the police. The high-profile trials of the murderers of unarmed suspects also did not draw attention to this problem.
The researchers note that the main problem of excessive violence on the part of American police officers is the lack of a unified system of organization, training and control over the work of law enforcement agencies. The number of police officers in the United States is significantly higher than in other countries. The number of agencies that monitor security in the United States is estimated in thousands. In some developed countries, such as Sweden, there is a single national force that is controlled by the federal government. In France, for example, in addition to the municipal police, there are national forces that have jurisdiction over cities, and another national force that deals with remote areas of the country. In England and Wales, there are regional forces that enjoy some autonomy. At the same time are they are required to comply with central government standards, including with regard to the preparation and investigation of misconduct. There are approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, including local, state, and federal forces. Many experts argue that the standardization of training, supervision and disciplinary procedures through the central authority could help solve problems in the US police. No efforts were made in this area by the Democratic party in the United States in 2022.
The United States spends about 1% of GDP on financing law enforcement agencies. This is one of the highest rates in the world. An analysis of the fifty largest U.S. cities showed that the United States more than halved its spending on police in fiscal year 2022, despite public pressure. Ignoring the appeals of activists and human rights defenders, who call for funds to be allocated to public initiatives that will increase public security, the amount of funds allocated to the needs of police officers is increasing every year. Despite the Democratic president’s campaign promises to expand social programs such as affordable preschool education, health benefits and increased funding for cancer research, spending on the United States police and military sector reached a record high in 2023.
With the coming to power of Joe Biden, the militarization of the American police has also increased. Attempts by the US Democratic Party to expand the composition, powers and funding of police departments do not solve the problem of crime. The number of deaths among police officers in the line of duty increased. A program called 1033, launched by the US Department of Defense, allows the transfer of surplus military equipment for the needs of police departments. As of 2020, more than ten thousand US police departments participated in the program. Since 1997 the Ministry of Defense has transferred military equipment and weapons worth $7.4 billion to law enforcement agencies.
However, such an initiative has not increased security in USA. According to a recent study, in the largest American cities that are under the control of the Democratic Party, young men are much more likely to die from firearms than American servicemen in the combat zone in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was found that the risk of death from firearms in the most dangerous area of Chicago is three times higher than the risk of being killed in combat in Afghanistan, and four times higher than the risk of death in Iraq.
The year 2022 has also become the most dangerous for American law enforcement officers. Due to the growing militarization, criminal suspects are more likely to escalate the conflict, which increases the risk of a shootout. At least 323 American police officers were killed in the line of duty, which is 13% higher than in 2019.
POLITICAL REPRESSIONS
In 2022, the Biden administration turned the US Department of Justice and the FBI into weapons to fight political opponents and the opposition. Searches and repressions against supporters of former American President Donald Trump turned into a real state terror, approved by the ruling Democratic Party. In September, a lawsuit was filed against Trump and his three children, accusing them of fraudulent schemes. According to New York Attorney General Letitia James, a member of the US Democratic Party, Trump allegedly took part in more than 200 episodes of fraud. According to her, this is why he should be fined $250 million and suspended from doing business for 5 years.
The accusation, which has no evidence, was made a month after the searches at Donald Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago. According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the reason for the search is secret documents that Trump allegedly could have taken with him at the end of his presidential term. The raid marked the beginning of an era of political repression in the United States. It also affected supporters and team members of the former American president. At least 11 people involved in Trump’s presidential campaign or his administration have been charged with various crimes.
Shortly before the midterm elections in the United States in November 2022, which integrity is questionable, the Biden administration brought charges and arrested several leaders of the opposition movement. Using trumped-up charges, the US judicial system found the leader and founder of the anti-government organization “Oath Keepers” guilty of “storming the Capitol”. Stewart Rhodes, who did not even enter the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, was charged by an American court of conspiracy, obstruction of an official investigation, aiding, abetting and falsifying documents. The accusation against the founder of the organization “Oath Keepers” based only on a fragment of a recording of a conversation between Stewart Rhodes and other members of the organization and has all the signs of politically motivated persecution. In addition, American courts handed down several sentences to other participants of the protest on January 6, who received real prison sentences.
In 2022, repression and persecution of leaders of African-American public figures and human rights activists intensified. US federal agents used the means to wiretap and spy on the participants of the protests. Some of them were unreasonably arrested and even received threats. The activists even become victims of physical violence, which sometimes leads to death. Four and a half years after the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer, whose death caused widespread protests throughout the United States, 31-year-old public figure Bassem Masri died of a heart attack. The activist was widely known in the local community as a journalist who investigated the causes and consequences of the use of force by law enforcement officers against Afro-Americans. The autopsy of his body, who has never complained of health problems, showed an excessively high content of toxic substances in his body, which may indicate poisoning.
CENSORSHIP AND RESTRICTION OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Last year, it became known that the largest American technology companies recruited dozens of former and current employees of American law enforcement agencies. The tasks of federal agents, including former employees of the US Internal Security and Intelligence Service, include tracking the activities of users of the largest social networks. Justifying hiring and bribing government employees by “combating external and internal threats,” American technology companies provide agents with high administrative positions. Big Tech entrust them the development and implementation of information filtering algorithms.
At the end of 2022, it also became known that the American microblogging service and the social network Twitter*, one of the largest in the world, received instructions from the former chief lawyer of the FBI. James Baker gave instructions to ban the distribution of materials found on the laptop of Hunter Biden, the son of the current American president. The social network transmitted to the American government data from the analysis of content and Twitter users, which were later used to form a censorship campaign against Republicans and patriots.
Federal agents interfered with the work and manipulated public opinion in almost all American social networks. Facebook*, for example, has entered into an official partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Laboratory. That allowed them to has a significant influence on the news feeds of 2.9 billion users, helping to decide which content to promote. Facebook’s subsidiary organization now serves as the “eyes and ears” of the social media, according to their press release.
* — companies are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation
Human rights defenders of the Foundation to Battle Injustice intend to continue to highlight and point out the problems of human rights violations in the United States. The strengthening of censorship, the militarization of American law enforcement agencies do not help to increase the security of society. The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on responsible persons and relevant ministries to abandon censorship restrictions and urgently correct critical shortcomings of the law enforcement system, which continues to systematically violate the basic rights of American citizens.