"Donald Trump's rhetoric is completely inflammatory," says Human Rights Watch

Text by: Marie Normand Follow

Protests continue in the United States, nine days after the death of George Floyd, an African-American whose autopsy revealed that he had been suffocated during his arrest by the police. For Human Rights Watch, partisan rhetoric from the White House only makes things worse. Interview with Kenneth Roth, the executive director of the NGO.

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RFI: In its press release after the death of George Floyd, Human Rights Watch maintains that the law enforcement system in the United States " does not treat all citizens equally ", which means that Afro lives -Americans are " sacrificed ". What figures do you rely on?

Kenneth Roth: First of all, the murder of George Floyd was absolutely atrocious. It is the appalling and brutal use of force against, once again, an African-American. Police in the United States kill about 1,000 people a year, which is a lot. But we must also observe this from a racial angle. In the past three years, we can see that even if African Americans make up only about 13% of the population in the United States, they represent 25% of those killed by the police, almost double. It is even worse if we take only people who were not armed: about 37% of blacks. The impunity with which the police operate must be examined. There are very few lawsuits. This impunity encourages the police to continue killing.

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But the treatment of African Americans by the police is only part of the problem, part of the treatment that society, the American political system, gives them. Huge resources are spent on policing, but the government and states are saving or underfunding several social programs that would lift these communities out of poverty. For example, access to basic health care is neglected. This is one of the factors explaining why the death rate from the coronavirus pandemic has been so high among African Americans. And that's why the murder of George Floyd sparked such animosity around the world: it truly reflects the mistreatment of a larger system.

How do you react to the fact that several dozen journalists, who covered the demonstrations, have been directly attacked by the police in recent days ?

KR: Human Rights Watch has not been able to methodically verify this information. But I have seen many stories emerge from the media, where journalists appear to have been targeted by the police, or arrested, while doing their job and clearly identifying themselves as journalists. I believe that President Trump's way of blaming the media, saying that somehow it was their fault, seemed to give the green light to law enforcement to try to silence them .

Donald Trump's rhetoric is utterly inflammatory, the exact opposite of what you would expect from a president with moral authority. This is the same man who described as "  very good people  " far-right demonstrators Charlottesville , there a few years ago, or more recently armed demonstrators who opposed the containment measures in Michigan. This is the kind of highly partisan rhetoric that emanates from the White House. It just makes things worse. It is not unifying at all and it even incites extreme reactions from the police or Trump's armed supporters.

The American president threatens to deploy the army to put an end to the violence. Your reaction ?

KR: Again, it all comes down to the same rhetorical exaggeration. Rather than talking to the demonstrators and saying to them: "  I understand your pain, I see the injustices, I am by your side, we will try to fight these injustices  " - what one could expect from a moral authority -, he focuses on the handful of people who engage in violence and directs the full force of his rhetoric against them. This crisis is just the latest example of the Trump administration's complete abandonment of human rights. You also see it in the way they treat asylum seekers.

I could go on and on and on and find multiple examples of human rights abuses by the Trump administration in the United States. If we then look at his foreign policy, Donald Trump seems to befriend a whole set of autocrats: Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Sissi in Egypt ... Of course, this deprives the United States of all moral authority to promote human rights around the world. I don't know if this will be a problem forever, but it will remain a problem as long as Donald Trump is in the White House.

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