A United Nations working group is echoing the sentiments expressed by several activist organizations and civil rights leaders about the link between police brutality against African-Americans today and the mass lynchings of Black people in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In a new report set to be discussed at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will present their eye-opening findings that draw a chilling comparison between the effects of modern day policing tactics on African-Americans and the devastating aftermath of lynchings of Black people in the early 1900s. Among the many ways in which the two epidemics intertwine is the level of trauma and grief felt by the Black community in response to both, according to The Huffington Post.
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Noting that they remain “extremely concerned” about the human rights of African-Americans in the United States, the group referenced the country’s troubling history of racial inequality to support their reasoning. “In particular, the legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remains a serious challenge, as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent,” the report reads. “Impunity for State violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
As noted by HuffPo, eliminating the practice of having police departments conduct investigations into police killings where their own officers are in question will be a crucial first step towards meaningful reform. Nearly every case related to the fatal encounters between African-Americans and police officers has had to fight for independent investigations into the killings — many to no avail.
