Torture of Gitmo & Abu Ghraib detainees doesn't upset one when one considers that mentally ill prisoners are so inhumanely abused in mainland US. Deaths & tortures of African-Americans become less of a surprise when one compares those incidents with this news. After all, those detainees were not even Americans & belonged to a different religion & ethnicity. After all, those African-Americans were of sound mental health (at least most were).
I'm definitely not saying that torturing POWs (Prisoners of War) is all ok or abusing & killing of African-Americans by American cops is ok from any perspective.
What I am saying that in American culture / society, the top brass (government) is showing with their actions, around the world (foreign policy), that the powerful should & can do anything to the powerless without any fear of reprisals or punishment. Even if the army or police do get caught & sentenced, they are out in the general population within a few short months.
The concept, at least in the corporate world, is becoming common that leadership is a very important factor in the success of a company. Leadership defines the culture & tone of the whole organization.
Well, ironically, American governmental leadership has spread this notion in its own citizens that the powerful should eat the lunch of powerless with impunity. It spread this idea by invading countries at will & unilaterally, & killing anyone it likes, without any fear of reprisals. American leadership takes those reprehensible actions because they think that since their army is the largest & most powerful in the world, they can do anything to the powerless. Well, that same idea has sown itself in the common citizenry, where law enforcement authorities (cops) & law enforcement apparatus (prisons) are abusing the powerless with impunity.
You reap what you sow !!!
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Human Rights Watch has issued a report stating that mentally ill prisoners are being abused in detention facilities across the US, & that these practices are happening in over 5,000 facilities.
The activist group says inmates are being subjected to unnecessary & excessive use of force, & the problem is widespread.
The report provides details of cases where inmates were shocked with Tasers, & where pepper spray was used against them.
In some cases, prisoners were left in restraint chairs for days, or put in scalding showers.
“I think the public & legislators for far too long have been willing to send people to prison, without thinking a whole lot about what life behind bars [is like]. And what goes on behind bars is often hidden, people don’t know what is happening,” Jamie Fellner, one of the report’s authors & senior adviser at Human Rights Watch, told RT.
“What we wanted to focus on was <…> the fact that in so many cases when force wasn’t required, when you had non-violent, minor non-threatening misconduct by a prisoner that didn’t need to be responded to with force,” Fellner concluded.
Among the especially troubling cases was Nick Christie, a 62-year-old man who had recently stopped taking his medications for depression & anxiety. He was incarcerated in Florida in 2009 for a nonviolent misdemeanor.
At one point, locked in his cell & crying out for medical help, he kept yelling & banging on the cell door.
Prison officials sprayed him with chemical spray over a dozen times in 36 hours, & immobilized him in a restraint chair with a spit mask covering his face. He died from cardiac arrest.
Another Florida prisoner diagnosed with schizophrenia defecated on the floor of his cell & refused to clean it up.
Officers allegedly put him in a scalding shower, left him there for over an hour, & the inmate subsequently died.
However, the case that specifically caught the attention of human rights activists was 35-year-old Christopher Lopez. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic & was discovered on his cell floor semi-conscious.
Staff failed to call medics & instead put Lopez in a restraint chair. A few hours later, he experienced a severe seizure.
The officers finally released him from the chair, but left him lying handcuffed on the floor. Lopez died a few hours later. His lawyer spoke to RT about the case.
“His mother had contacted me & said he had died in custody, she went to look at the body and saw signs of abuse. That got me interested, I got hold of the autopsy report, & began to investigate it,” attorney David Lane said.
“What appeared to be the cause of death was an overdose of psychotropic medication to the point of electrolyte imbalance, & his heart was slowly stopping,” he added.
The lawyer also told RT that the general attitude towards mentally ill inmates in the US is that they are a “management problem,” & they are dealt with like this, “as opposed to mentally ill human beings.”
Around 20% of prisoners in the US have a serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder & major depression, according to a press release issued by Human Rights Watch. Inmates suffering from such conditions often find it difficult to cope with imprisonment & to comply with instructions.
I'm definitely not saying that torturing POWs (Prisoners of War) is all ok or abusing & killing of African-Americans by American cops is ok from any perspective.
What I am saying that in American culture / society, the top brass (government) is showing with their actions, around the world (foreign policy), that the powerful should & can do anything to the powerless without any fear of reprisals or punishment. Even if the army or police do get caught & sentenced, they are out in the general population within a few short months.
The concept, at least in the corporate world, is becoming common that leadership is a very important factor in the success of a company. Leadership defines the culture & tone of the whole organization.
Well, ironically, American governmental leadership has spread this notion in its own citizens that the powerful should eat the lunch of powerless with impunity. It spread this idea by invading countries at will & unilaterally, & killing anyone it likes, without any fear of reprisals. American leadership takes those reprehensible actions because they think that since their army is the largest & most powerful in the world, they can do anything to the powerless. Well, that same idea has sown itself in the common citizenry, where law enforcement authorities (cops) & law enforcement apparatus (prisons) are abusing the powerless with impunity.
You reap what you sow !!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human Rights Watch has issued a report stating that mentally ill prisoners are being abused in detention facilities across the US, & that these practices are happening in over 5,000 facilities.
The activist group says inmates are being subjected to unnecessary & excessive use of force, & the problem is widespread.
The report provides details of cases where inmates were shocked with Tasers, & where pepper spray was used against them.
In some cases, prisoners were left in restraint chairs for days, or put in scalding showers.
“I think the public & legislators for far too long have been willing to send people to prison, without thinking a whole lot about what life behind bars [is like]. And what goes on behind bars is often hidden, people don’t know what is happening,” Jamie Fellner, one of the report’s authors & senior adviser at Human Rights Watch, told RT.
“What we wanted to focus on was <…> the fact that in so many cases when force wasn’t required, when you had non-violent, minor non-threatening misconduct by a prisoner that didn’t need to be responded to with force,” Fellner concluded.
Among the especially troubling cases was Nick Christie, a 62-year-old man who had recently stopped taking his medications for depression & anxiety. He was incarcerated in Florida in 2009 for a nonviolent misdemeanor.
At one point, locked in his cell & crying out for medical help, he kept yelling & banging on the cell door.
Prison officials sprayed him with chemical spray over a dozen times in 36 hours, & immobilized him in a restraint chair with a spit mask covering his face. He died from cardiac arrest.
Another Florida prisoner diagnosed with schizophrenia defecated on the floor of his cell & refused to clean it up.
Officers allegedly put him in a scalding shower, left him there for over an hour, & the inmate subsequently died.
However, the case that specifically caught the attention of human rights activists was 35-year-old Christopher Lopez. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic & was discovered on his cell floor semi-conscious.
Staff failed to call medics & instead put Lopez in a restraint chair. A few hours later, he experienced a severe seizure.
The officers finally released him from the chair, but left him lying handcuffed on the floor. Lopez died a few hours later. His lawyer spoke to RT about the case.
“His mother had contacted me & said he had died in custody, she went to look at the body and saw signs of abuse. That got me interested, I got hold of the autopsy report, & began to investigate it,” attorney David Lane said.
“What appeared to be the cause of death was an overdose of psychotropic medication to the point of electrolyte imbalance, & his heart was slowly stopping,” he added.
The lawyer also told RT that the general attitude towards mentally ill inmates in the US is that they are a “management problem,” & they are dealt with like this, “as opposed to mentally ill human beings.”
Around 20% of prisoners in the US have a serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder & major depression, according to a press release issued by Human Rights Watch. Inmates suffering from such conditions often find it difficult to cope with imprisonment & to comply with instructions.
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