How Are We Doing Now? A look at past and current events.

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Since 1984, there has been much debate over what constitutes illegal torture.

On December 9, 2014, the U.S. Government released reports on CIA torture of Muslim detainees from 2001 to 2006.  Torture included force-feeding, mock executions, physical and sexual violence, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding.  The thirty-ninth Session of the General Assembly, 93rd Plenary Meeting on December 10, 1984 included the Adoption of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment  have clearly stated that the techniques are torture. The U.S. was compelled to admit its failures and injustices. Human Rights Watch posted a statement on December 9^th, 2014, the same day that the report was issued.

“The CIA’s use of torture after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — is a look back on a controversial part of our country’s past. The CIA’s torture program continues to have huge implications at the U.S. military court and prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where 40 accused terrorists remain.” 

Today, incredible artwork by the Guantanamo detainees is shown in public. Some of the artwork displays the illegal torture endured by the detainees. Click here to see their artwork. 

On December 10, 2008, police officers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, faced federal charges for covering up a murder of Mexican Immigrant Luis Ramirez by white teens spewing racial slurs.  Watch video.  

The Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs release dated October 14, 2010 stated:  

A federal jury in Scranton, Pa., has convicted Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak, both of Shenandoah, Pa., of a hate crime arising out of the fatal beating of Luis Ramirez. The jury found the defendants guilty of violating the criminal component of the federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it a crime to use a person’s race, national origin or ethnicity as a basis to interfere, with violence or threats of violence, with a person’s right to live where he chooses to live. In addition, the jury found that Donchak conspired to, and did in fact, obstruct justice. 

During the trial, the jury heard evidence from multiple eyewitnesses that the defendants, aided and abetted each other and some of their friends in fatally beating Luis Ramirez because he was Latino and because they did not want Latinos living in Shenandoah.  Luis Ramirez was transported to Geisinger Regional Medical Center, where he died of massive head injuries. 

The FBI posted statements about the conviction of the teens in 2011. The police chief and one police officer who attempted to cover up the crimes on behalf of the defendants were indicted. Three police officers were tried in 2012. Click here.   

Compare this hate crime and the racist rhetoric to our current border issues, policies, and outcomes.  Twenty-two immigrants died in detention centers in the last two years.  Click here.  Numerous immigrants have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Children are separated from their parents.

Within 14 days of the hateful El Paso shooting targeting Latinos, law enforcement officials say they thwarted at least seven mass shootings or white supremacist attacks in the U.S.  

On December 12, in 1917, black soldiers were executed after the Houston, Texas, police beat and shot at black troops, prompting 156 soldiers to revolt.  In the end, authorities hung 16 soldiers and sentenced 50 of them to life in prison.  See video:

On December 5, 2019, the Attorney General of the United States William Barr warned that if Americans don’t give more “support and respect” to police, “they might find themselves without the police protection they need.” No doubt police departments are descimated, overwhelmed, and often demoralized. That is a problem.

Another problem is that in 2018, according to the Washington Post and Mapping Police Violence, “despite being 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, black people were 26.7 percent of the people killed by police where the race was known. Whites are 62% of the population and, 50.1 percent of the people killed by police.  Click here for more statistics.   

Communities actively exercise the right to protest in direct response to injustice.  The Attorney General is ignoring a decades-long, shoot first policy for people of color.  How does anyone judge and rate a community’s level of “support and respect?”  

How are we doing now? In the realm of racism, not good. If illegal torture has ceased, that is a dramatic step forward.