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 heavy-
handed 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 sent-
ences. 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 !