US admits it must do more to uphold civil rights after police killings

[GENESIMM0NS]

US admits it must do more to uphold civil rights after police killings of unarmed black men

PUBLISHED : Monday, 11 May, 2015, 11:20pm
UPDATED : Monday, 11 May, 2015, 11:20pm

Agence France-Presse in Geneva

The 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, the Buddhist leader of South Asia, waves a scarf in front of a mural of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Photo: AFP

The United States acknowledged yesterday more needed to be done to uphold its civil rights laws following a string of recent killings of unarmed black men by police.

Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council, a US representative stressed the advances his country had made in establishing a range of civil rights laws over the past half century. But referring to a long line of recent cases of alleged abuse of blacks by police, James Cadogan, a senior counsellor in the justice department's civil rights division, admitted that "we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our civil rights laws live up to their promise".

"The tragic deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Michael Brown in Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, Tamir Rice in Ohio, and Walter Scott in South Carolina have ... challenged us to do better," he said.

The United States was undergoing a so-called Universal Periodic Review of its rights record - which all 193 UN countries must undergo every four years.

The US delegation, headed by US ambassador to the council Keith Harper and acting US legal adviser Mary McLeod, faced a range of questions from diplomats about law enforcement tactics, police brutality and the disproportionate impact on blacks and other minorities.

The half-day review in Geneva came after the US justice department on Friday had launched a federal civil rights investigation into whether police in Baltimore have systematically discriminated against residents, following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody last month.

Cadogan insisted Washington was intent on bringing abusive police officers to justice.

"When federal, state, local or tribal officials wilfully use excessive force that violates the US Constitution or federal law, we have authority to prosecute them," he said.