Excessive use of force by US police result of inappropriate training: Analyst

The US Department of Justice has released a damning report, shedding light on the mistreatment of minorities especially African Americans by the Chicago Police Department. The yearlong investigation was prompted by the 2014 death of a black teenager who was shot 16 times by a white officer. The federal investigation concluded that officers were not sufficiently trained or supported and that many who were accused of misconduct were rarely investigated or disciplined. Press TV has talked to Mustafa Ansari, the dean of the American Institute of Human Rights, and Fredrick Peterson, a senior US congressional defense adviser, to discuss the US police excessive use of force against people of color.

Frederick Peterson called the report inaccurate and worthless published by the US administration during its last days and without providing substantial information about the root causes of crimes in Chicago city.

Chicago is now the murder capital of the United States with more instances of gun violence than Los Angles and New York, Peterson said, adding this is mostly because of the crimes that are committed by black people against whites.

“This is actually blacks going into the white communities and shooting. This [pertains to] crimes conducted within the black community itself. Blacks shooting blacks. And this conflict is utterly out of control. Police officers, whether they are white or black, go into those communities in an attempt to preserve, protect, and defend innocents and property owned by innocents, risking their lives and in fact in many cases giving their lives in order to preserve life in those communities,” Peterson underlined.

However, Mustafa Ansari, the other panelist on the show, said that in his opinion, the current violence in US cities such as Chicago stems from a culture of racial discrimination that has been normalized by the government itself.

“There has been an ongoing problem of customary racism from about 300 years ago when we talked about the slave trade and the excessive force that was used to keep African Americans in check, doing the slave trade in all way to the 1920s, 30s and up until the present day,” the analyst noted.

“There has been a demonizing and customary racism that has caused this systemic problem. We, at the Institute of International Lawyers and Experts, are going to suggest to the incoming attorney general in the Trump administration to enforce the international standards of policing,” he said, adding the institute offered three different courses on police conduct and accountability.

Ansari noted that US police are mistrained and do not know how to deal with the black community.

“These are all extreme violations of human rights. These are violations of the international standards of policing which we teach. We teach the direct elements of what excessive force is. When we talk about force… police are supposed to use the least force possible according to the appropriateness of the situation.” 

Despite Chicago officers’ aggressive approach, there has been no major difference in the overall crime rate in the city.

According to data maintained by The Chicago Tribune, at least 781 were killed in the city last year. 

Fatal police shootings and other forms of violence against people of color have sparked massive protests across the US in recent years.

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