Long

The US has a long record of police brutality and high-handedness in the course of administrating law and order in that country. Arbitrary arrests, excessive use of force, racism, corruption, tampering with witnesses, falsifying evidence, reckless killing, physical abuse, torture, gross mistreatment of juveniles and the handicapped, illegal use of threats and coercion, a long-held predilection for firing more times or shooting more bullets than is necessary to subdue a suspect, injuring or killing helpless individuals already lying on the ground, and hijacking justice afterwards, plus a long list of other horrendous illegalities. Such behaviour is not recent or came about only because of the turbulent nature of law enforcement in the US in the 20th century. The US police from very early on had committed very severe trespass against the common people in the recorded history of the country. It was common for policing forces to hunt and attack minority groups or the nameless just on the word of a particular person who might well have been attempting to use the police for his own interest. In other words, there was little fair play when administrating law and order. It was nothing more than legalised vigilantism. Early US police were enormously aided by obnoxious laws introduced by evil heartless politicians in the country. The laws didn't allow certain groups of people to give evidence or appear in a court of law. They were not considered to have the same rights as other citizens. Thus offences committed against them were virtually unprosecutable. Moreover, the police could arrest and detain them solely on verbal evidence from very doubtful characters. Thus, the adherence to fair play and universal rules of justice by US police was weak right from the start. It is still true today. In the 20th century, US society experienced profound changes that were brought about by advances in technology. Two of them were the high degree of mobility of the individual as a result of easy availability of motorised transport and the introduction of very modern and deadly side arms. 19th century revolvers became museum items. Now US citizens had accesss to fully automatic pistols, & Uzis, AK-47s, Armalite rifles and other high-powered weaponry. This easy mobility and deadly weaponry was accompanied by the mass rise of organised groups or organisations in the country. These groups or organisations ranged all the way from criminal gangs to social societies and anti-war groups and civil rights movements. Added to this highly volatile mix was the introduction of products of 20th century medical laboratory research, narcotics, to society. The high mobility of the individual, the easy availability of very deadly weapons, the existence of a rainbow of organised groups and the introduction of narcotics in the US brought immense pressure on the US police in its work. The US police duly responded by employing tough measures & actions. Extrajudicial killings, violent responses, assaults and beatings, spontaneous shootings, unprovoked arrests and a whole lot of other extreme acts became part of the common repertory of the US police. The situation was made even worse by deep-rooted racism existing within the police force and the government of the US. The use of racial profiling was introduced. Racial minorities in the US were subject to harsh prejudices and unfair treatment by the US police.

70 to 80 % of people brought into police custody consisted of the minority groups in the US. This gave rise to much resentment in the community and the police became very much hated. The US police were 'pigs' to the minorities and the 'pigs' in turn became even more harsher than usual to them. This state of affairs inevitably gave rise to wanton killings, arbitrary arrests, beatings, bribery and all other sorts of nonsense which cannot be fully listed here. The US police are mean and violent and excessive in its overall conduct not just only towards minorities but also towards others as well. Only the well-heeled and the very famous are generally spared of such indignities. The only other party to such exceptions are the police officers themselves. These people are well treated (compared to others) because of no other reasons than corruption, prejudice, dishonesty and double standards. What happened to the institution known as universal basic rights of individuals cannot be understood here. The lists of acts of violence perpetrated by the US police after WW2 are inexhaustible. It is not that US police did not commit any indiscretions or wrongdoings before that, but post-WW2, US police were literally on the warpath. The ferocious and aggressive stand taken by the US police is of great concern and interest to us all. After 1945 and after the Korean War, the US was generally in a state of euphoria. The US had the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb and the largest and most powerful economy. But in the inner cities of the country, youths were getting restless. Minority groups were getting restless too. And organised crime syndicates were also getting very restless too. This powerful combination was to exert an almighty force on efforts to maintain law and order in the US. Youth gangs and criminal syndicates established and utilised their own code of 'law' often attacking and killing rivals and turncoats. Crime, drugs, lawlessness and other mayhem forced the police to the wall. Added to this was the ceaseless clamour for equality and minority rights which led to constant street marches and confrontations with the men in uniform. The post-war years were a real headache for the US police. The situation of the day was exacerbated by the emergence of homegrown extremist groups like the BP, SLA and others and the rise of anti-war groups which resulted from direct American military involvement in Vietnam. Many law-abiding citizens fled out of the country to escape being drafted or arrests for ignoring it while others became hippies who embraced wanton drug-filled living. Countless numbers of people were arrested, injured or killed during that period. Riots, demonstrations, street fighting, crime, revenge and all other forms of violence were the order of the day. All these senseless behaviour caused the police to respond with maximum force. The killings and woundings and maimings stretched all the way from NY to LA to Miami and to Seattle. North to south, east to west. All the way. From the late fifties to the sixties gun use mushroomed in the US. Guns were used widely by gangs involved in turf wars, criminals in organised crime, jobless youths who committed acts of muggings and holdups and drug jobs, decadent rightwing groups like Hell's Angels, extremist minority groups and leftwing anti-war groups. The latter was also skilled in making improvised bombs. Pipebombs were pretty common in the US during that very hellish period (which by the way

has never really ended). The worst years were the late sixties and the early seventies. In between this period, the US witnessed calamitous violence and great lawlessness. It was during this period that the great legendary Bruce L once explained to a friend: Here, the police can hardly even control the streets during the day, they would certainly not care at all if a faceless nameless non-white tourist finds himself or herself falling into trouble with the local hoodlums. Countless riots broke out all the time all over the US and many of them were caused by the US police who regularly overreacted when conducting a local raid or arrest. Most victims were from the minority groups and it greatly incensed the populace. In 1965, for example, in the Watts neighbourhood of LA, a serious riot broke out after heavyhanded action by the local police. Arson, assault and killing was the order of the day. It lasted almost a week and was made worse by the LA police chief hurling taunts in public at the mobs at the height of the riot. The Watts riot was part of a pattern of civil unrests that spread across the US during that time. This occasionally resurrects itself from time to time today. The US police were also busy going after anti-war protesters apart from street rioters. On May 4 1970, several students were shot to death inside the campus of Kent State University. They were shot despite not indulging in any sort of violence. They were only just protesting against US military escalation in Indochina. The killings were totally unjustified and incurred the wrath of the public. Yet it was not an isolated incident at all. US police went on to shoot more such protesters in many other incidents later. Shortly after the Kent State University killings, US police again shot dead some students at the Jackson State University. However, this time the students belonged to a minority group and there was lesser public anger. The US police indeed has a very long tradition of shooting people as if they were shooting deer or partridge. It is still being practised today, right now. It was not just the US police who broke laws and rules when going about their work. The US internal services, including the FBI were known to have carried out acts of intimidation and harrassment in the course of their duties. Searches, arrests and ominous visits were used against civil rights leaders. ML King was one of their favourite targets. More than once, he had to endure verbal abuses and veiled threats from the FBI while inside their offices. The US is the most violent nation in the world and it's no surprise that the US police behave so similarly. Still, many acts done by the US police cannot be condoned at all. For example, the dragging and assaulting of a young girl by two burly well-fed police officers inside a jail cell in Seattle in Nov 2008 is a classic case of police brutality and heavy-handedness in the US. It is never an isolated case at all as such incidents are constantly being repeated all over the US right up to this very moment. And many of the those officers involved have actually carried out such similar acts on previous occasions. Even handicapped or old people are not spared. In 2008 a wheelchair-bound man was brutally and mercilessly dumped on the floor by the police just because they wanted to conduct a

body search. Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year old woman was killed by multiple shots by trigger-happy policemen when they barged into her home. Later, the police tried to forge fake evidence to justify the shooting. This kind of travesty is not new. In fact, it is older than the Alamo. Fabricating or falsifying evidence has been a long American tradition when it comes to explaining shooting incidents. Shooting or maiming or injuring people inside homes and buildings are not the only things US police are good at. US police routinely assault a person if that person has been judged to have attempted to resist arrest or tried to make an escape. On many occasions the attack was carried out by more than one officer and the beatings continued even after the person became totally helpless. The police have even used painful taser guns on old women who could not have possibly resist the average well-fed police officer. In other parts of the world, such people could only be handled by women officers, not male police officers armed to the teeth. Over the years, many people have fallen victim to these acts of the US police, with many suffering serious injuries and even deaths. The US police normally try to cover up or obstruct any subsequent investigation and police and investigators are often in league with each other. Therefore very few policemen get convicted or even get prosecuted. This is despite the almost countless number of times excessive or wanton acts of abuse get chalked up by the US police. Nevertheless, the injuries, wounds or dead bodies could not be ignored or be disregarded by even the most hard-nosed judge or investigator. So, in many cases the families of the victims get awarded with multi-million compensations for their grief. Justice is bought by the handed-out cash but for those who had died at the hands of the US police, it's no justice at all. There has been an upsurge of crime in the US recently, but the US is now facing a financial crisis. Money is scarce for building any new jails or rehabilitation centres. The result is overcrowding in US jails and inevitably causing or leading to more crime. It is a vicious cycle which the average US politician is most unwilling to pay attention to. So, it leads to more crime, more corruption and increased injustice. The US is indeed a very violent and very ruthless society. It is no surprise therefore, when we get to know about the happenings in places like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and a lot of other ones as well. In these places, the same story duly gets unfolded each time it is discovered. Only one or two are found guilty at the most and they are typically given very light sentences. The rest of the perpetrators get free and they can then do it all over again. It is the style of the American way and the American tradition. The US police is the most violent & brutal law agency in the world. Yet, we need to remind ourselves that over eleven million cases of crime are registered annually in that country. And that number is rising. Violence and counter violence is the norm in the US. Still, US politicians prefer to not see the real situation right at their doorstep. Instead they babble unthinkingly about some situation in Tehran or Havana which really does not concern them at all. US politicians should preferably focus on very serious matters now seen in their country. US prisons are overcrowded, many are in very

deplorable conditions and some are even totally dilapidated. Prison assaults and rapes are all too common. Remember the prison riots of the past ? Some of them were made into films. Women prisons like Rikers Island prison are full of horror stories. Stories that are largely unknown to the rest of the world. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for those who have been unfortunate enough to have experienced a brush with the unholy US police and more so, for those who have ended up in places like the so-called supermax detention centres in the US. These places are really like little incarnations of the real hell found in Hades. American politicians are really two-faced devils and hypocrites for criticisng others when they fail to consider that their citizens are always living under the dark shadow of the most brutal and most violent law enforcement agency in the world. It is a very most reprehensible state of affairs. The US is but a big can of worms !