Adversaries seize chance to lecture U.S. on Ferguson unrest

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Reuters:

(Reuters) - Governments scolded by the United States over their human rights records have seized on racial unrest and a police crackdown in the Missouri town of Ferguson to wag their fingers back in disapproval.

 

Adversaries and uneasy allies from Russia and Iran to China and Egypt have accused the United States of hypocrisy as images of police brandishing lethal weapons and tear-gassing protesters have been shown around the world.

 

They have also pointed to the problems faced by black Americans.

 

Many of the countries draw criticism of their own democratic credentials from independent rights group as well as the U.S. government. Nonetheless, activists say the events in Ferguson, where the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman has provoked 11 nights of protests, undermine the United States' credibility in criticizing others.

 

"The United States can't tell other countries to improve their records on policing and peaceful assembly if it won't clean up its own human rights record," Amnesty International said in a tweet.

 

Such a scenario is not new. The United States has for decades been accused of failing to practice what it preaches in much of its global conduct - the abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq and the detention of prisoners without trial at the Guantanamo Bay camp being two notable examples.

 

What is different is that the Ferguson unrest is taking place between Americans on home soil. The racial violence is the worst since the 1992 Los Angeles riots over the police beating of Rodney King, while the police tactics have evoked memories of the civil rights battles of the 1960s.

 

Russia's reaction recalled the Cold War era, when official Soviet media highlighted the plight of poor U.S. blacks. Ferguson showed that deep problems persisted, Moscow's human rights commissioner, Konstatin Dolgov, said.

 

"They call on others countries to guarantee free speech and not to suppress anti-government protests, while the U.S. authorities do not stand on any ceremony at home with those who actively express their discontent with persisting inequalities," he said.

 

"It would seem the U.S. authorities would be better served to worry about their own large-scale internal problems ... than to follow past politics of interventions in the affairs of other countries and changing of undesirable regimes under the false pretext of protecting democracy and human rights."

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The view from abroad.

[Valin]

Why do the words Your Mama come to mind?