August 15, 2014

Racial tensions soar in the US

editor:	FairPlanet Editorial Team

Clashes between protesters and police over the death of an unarmed black teenager in Missouri have fueled fears of much greater racial tension between police and citizens across the US.

Brown's death was the third killing of unarmed black men by police in the last month.

Protesters against the shooting of Michael Brown in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson were met this week with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

The actions of the police force raised serious human rights concerns - not only were largely peaceful protests targeted but also journalists, some of which were detained while trying to report on the events.

Intimidation was also used, as police pointed rifles at protesters and even deployed military vehicles to the streets. A video shared online shows a police officer screaming at a group of protestors, calling them "animals".

The clashes have become a calling card for racial tensions across the US, pointing to systemic racism as overwhelmingly white police have used brutality against the largely black population of Ferguson.

There are well-founded fears that this event is symptomatic of wider racial tensions simemring across the US: these recent deaths sit against a backdrop of a system where 60 percent of prison inmates are black compared with only 30 percent of the population.

The "Stop and Frisk" law which allowed police to stop people on the street without reason - set to be banned by New York mayor Bill DeBlasio - affected African-American or Latino people in 80 percent of all times it was used, leaving their communities feeling terrorised.