Worries about ‘disproportionate’ number blacks killed by police

In the wake of a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of black teen Michael Brown, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights is calling for “a determined effort to root out institutionalized discrimination” in the U.S.

In a statement released Tuesday in Geneva, Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein of Jordan expressed concern about “the disproportionate number” of young black men shot dead by police in the U.S.

He also brought up “the disproportionate number of African Americans in U.S. prisons and the disproportionate number of African Americans on Death Row.”

Hussein said the issues add up to concern about whether or not the U.S. is complying with a number of U.N. human rights treaties, including the convention on the elimination of racial discrimination.

The U.N. high commissioner said he would not comment on whether or not the Ferguson grand jury verdict “conforms with international human rights law” since he admits he knows nothing about the details of the evidence it reviewed or “the quality of the investigation into the killing of Michael Brown.”

Two weeks ago, as WND reported, Brown’s parents addressed the U.N.’s Committee against Torture, charging Wilson violated U.S. obligations under the Convention against Torture.

The parents, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, said their goal was “not only to achieve justice in Ferguson, but to unite governments around the world against the human rights violations that result from racial profiling and police violence.”

The committee will deliver its conclusions Friday.

The commissioner managed to get in a swipe at America’s gun-ownership laws. Citing the police shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy carrying a toy gun, he observed: “In many countries, where real guns are not so easily available, police tend to view boys playing with replica guns as precisely what they are, rather than as a danger to be neutralized.”

The high commissioner expressed sympathy for the families of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice. He said, however, rioters had no right to destroy property and called on protesters to be peaceful.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/u-n-human-rights-chief-scolds-u-s-on-race/