China's report slams violence, misconduct in law enforcement in US

American citizens are threatened by rampant violent crimes and severe infringement of civil rights by law enforcement departments, said the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004 issued Thursday.

"Violent crimes pose a serious threat to people's lives," said the report issued by the Information Office of the State Council, China's cabinet.

The record quoted the Department of Justice of the United States on Nov. 29, 2004 as saying that in 2003 residents aged 12 and above in the United States came across about 24 million cases of crimes, including 1.38 million violent crimes like murders and robberies, averaging 475 cases per 100,000 people.

Among them there were 16,503 homicides, up 1.7 percent over 2002, or nearly six cases out of 100,000 residents, and one out of 44 Americans aged above 12 was victimized, the record said.

The United States has the biggest number of gun owners and gun violence has affected lots of innocent lives, it said.

About 31,000 Americans are killed and 75,000 wounded by firearms each year, which means more than 80 people are shot dead every day. In 2002 there were 30,242 firearm killings in the United States; 54 percent of all suicides and 67 percent of all homicides were related to the use of firearms.

"Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement agencies also constitute a serious problem," the record said.

Now 5,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States use TASER -- a kind of electric shock gun which sends out 50,000 volts of impulse voltage after hitting the target. Since 1999, more than 80 people died from TASER shootings, 60 percent of which occurred between November 2003 and November 2004.

Chinese citizen Zhao Yan was handcuffed and severely beaten on Jul. 21, 2004 while she was in the United States on a normal business trip. She suffered injuries in many parts of her body and serious mental harm, the record said.

Sexual harassment and encroachment are common in jails in the Unite States, the document added.

It quoted the New York Times report last October as saying that at least 13 percent of inmates in the country are sexually assaulted in prison. In jails of seven central and western US states, 21 percent of the inmates suffer sexual abuse at least once after being put in prison.

Source: Xinhua