Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch Silent on British Government's Excesses
British cops vs.unarmed rioters. Photo:Pravista
August 17 (UPDATE: SL-USA) - Leading human rights groups have remained silent while British judges worked 24/7 in the past few days handing down out-of-proportion harsh punishments to some of the people 2700 people arrested in the recent London riots.
The London-based rights group, Amnesty International, always quick to reprimand governments and police departments around the world, has not issued a single statement denouncing government excesses in the habndling of the riots and other developments that followed the killing of Mark Duggan by Tottenham police August 4, . (While police claimed Duggan fired first, ballistics traced gunfire residue to a police weapon, absolving the 29-year old father of four.)
The British government came down with a heavy hand. In a statement to the Commons on 11 August 2011, after Parliament was recalled from its summer recess, Prime Minster David Cameron warned that facial recognition software will be used on the images captured by security cameras to identify suspects and that “No phoney human rights concerned will get in the way” of bringing these people to justice.
Cameron authorized police to use rubber bullets and water cannon, asked if police wanted any additional powers, and threatened to block the public’s access to social media and curb internet access since social media such as Twitter and Facebook were used by the rioters to rally young people.
Several videos showing police beating unarmed civilians have been posted on YouTube.
Amnesty International, while ignoring serious threats to human rights in its own backyard, continued to monitor and criticize developments in China, Syria, Indonesia and a dozen other countries.
Human Rights Watch, the other leading rights organization that polices the world, too has failed to respond to events in London.
Meanwhile, courts are staying open 24 hours and working feverishly to process the riot-related cases. Already, nearly 1,400 people have been charged, including an 11-year old girl who admitted to smashing a window.
Two young men, who tried to rally rioters with Facebook postings were each sentenced to four years in prison, while in another case, a man was sentenced to six months in jail for stealing a $5 case of water
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, made Facebook postings calling people to the "Warrington Riots" and to "Smash Down Northwich Town" providing date, time, and location. They were not successful in getting people to respond and there was no riot but police arrested the two men.
The judge sentencing one of them said: "This happened at a time when collective insanity gripped the nation. Your conduct was quite disgraceful and the title of the message you posted on Facebook chills the blood."
While critics calling some of the sentences "reactionary" and "disproportionate," judges are openly disregarding sentencing guidelines. A Manchester judge is quoted as defending tougher sentences as being necessary to send a message “that outbursts of criminal behavior like this will be and must be met with sentences longer than they would be if the offenses had been committed in isolation."