Human Rights Record of the United States in 2018

MARCH

March 10

The Los Angeles Times website reported that attack planes and other aircraft have been added to US forces in Afghanistan since January, 2018. The US is bolstering its military presence in Afghanistan, more than 16 years after the war started.

March 14

A month after the school shooting in Parkland that left 17 dead and 14 injured, tens of thousands of students from nearly 3,000 schools across the United States took to the streets to protest gun violence, demanding stricter government legislation on gun control.

March 18

Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African American, was shot 20 times in his grandmother's backyard by two Sacramento policemen who were searching nearby for a man who had broken a car window. The only object found next to Stephon's body was a mobile phone. "They gunned him down like a dog," Stevante Clark, the victim's brother, said of the police shooting. "They executed him." "Twenty times. That's like stepping on a roach. And then stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping, stepping." Stephon Clark was the sixth person shot dead by Sacramento police since 2015, five of whom were African Americans.

March 19

The New York Times reported that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm largely funded by a wealthy Republican donor and hired by the 2016 election campaign, gained access to private information on more than 50 million Facebook users. The firm offered tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior.

March 19

According to reports by National Public Radio and The New York Times, a study conducted by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and the Census Bureau, found that in 99 percent of neighborhoods in the United States, African American boys earned less in adulthood than white boys who come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. "One of the most popular liberal post-racial ideas is the idea that the fundamental problem is class and not race, and clearly this study explodes that idea," said Ibram Kendi, a professor and director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. "But for whatever reason, we're unwilling to stare racism in the face."

March 25

The Washington Post reported that beginning with Columbine in 1999, more than 187,000 students attending at least 193 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus during school hours. Less than three months into 2018, there had been 11 shootings.

APRIL

April 1

The National Partnership for Women& Families website reported that black women in the United States who work full time, year-round are typically paid just 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. More than 4 million households in the United States are headed by black women-and nearly one in three of those households live below the poverty level.

April 4

A survey on the Pew Research Center website pointed out that 59 percent of women in the United States say they have personally received unwanted sexual advances or verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. When asked about sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace today, half of Americans think that men getting away with this type of behavior is a major problem.

April 12

Two African American men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, went to a Starbucks in the Center City district of Philadelphia and asked to use the restroom. The employee refused and demanded them leave. As the two refused to leave, the employee called the police, and the police arrested them. The act of discrimination triggered wide demonstrations.

April 19

The ABC News website reported that Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross has apologized to two black men who were arrested at a local Starbucks. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said that arrest caused "many Philadelphians" to witness and relive "the trauma of racial profiling".

April 23

The Council on American-Islamic Relations released a report, saying that the US federal government agencies have instigated more than a third of all anti-Muslim bias incidents in 2017. Of those, 464 incidents were related to the government's unconstitutional "Muslim Ban" executive orders. The new report also shows a 17-percent increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents and a 15-percent increase in hate crimes in 2017 over the previous year.

April 25

The Case Western Reserve University website reported that its research showed that in the United States, an estimated 15.5 million children each year are exposed to at least one episode of intimate partner violence, with more than 25 percent of children exposed to domestic violence in their lifetime. The Centers for Disease Control's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reports that 27.3 percent of women have experienced physical violence, sexual violence or stalking by intimate partners at least once in their lives.

April 26

Pew Research Center's report, The Public, the Political System and American Democracy, shows that 53 percent of the public say they are not in the opinion that "the rights and freedoms of all people are respected" in the US. Most US citizens think that those who donate a lot of money to elected officials have more political influence than others.

April 27

Pew Research Center's analysis of the data from US Census Bureau found that 30 percent of solo mothers and 17 percent of solo fathers and their families are living in poverty.

April 30

The US Department of Justice website reported that the former Arkansas State Senator and State Representative Henry Wilkins was found guilty of accepting briberies and voting in accordance with the intensions from the lobbyists.

MAY

May 2

Article 19, an international nongovernmental organization, reported on its website on May 2, 2018, the hostile climate to the US media had worsened. Journalists' ability to report was being undermined by attacks, arrests, border stops and restrictions on the release of public information. By openly and aggressively accusing journalists and media outlets of lying and producing "fake news", the current US government risked creating a culture of intimidation and hostility. Thomas Hughes, executive director of Article 19, said threats to press freedom in the United States saw alarming rise over recent years.

May 4

The USA Today website reported, a study of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed domestic violence occurred more often in minority communities. About 45 percent of black women had been physically or sexually abused by intimate partners.

May 12

The USA Today website reported, bullying had become an epidemic in US nursing homes and senior housing. About one in five seniors encountered bullying, it reported.

On the same day, The New York Times website reported that the US government separating migrant children from their parents had drawn public outcry. More than 2,000 migrant children had been separated from their parents.

May 18

A shooting rampage took place at the Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas. A 17-year-old student named Pagourtzis, armed with a pistol and a shotgun, killed 10 people and wounded 13 others. Explosive devices were found inside the school and at locations off campus.

May 22

The National Catholic Reporter website reported, Catholics were among the more than 100 participants demonstrating in Washington to demand an end to systemic racism and voter suppression laws. Since 2010, 23 states had passed some type of voter suppression laws, while 17 had voter suppression laws that target Native Americans and indigenous people. Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-founder of the Poor People's Campaign, said: "We condemn ongoing, proven acts of racist voter suppression, of racial voting district gerrymandering that undermine our democratic process. Voter suppression has a consistent, negative impact on our nation's poorest residents."

May 23

The Independent website reported there had been a startling increase in the number of instances where US Border Patrol officers had abused children seeking shelter in the United States. A total of 116 incidents were disclosed where officers were alleged to have physically, sexually, or psychologically abused children between the ages of 5 and 17.

May 27

The Los Angeles Times reported, according to data from the federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, black applicants were rejected at more than double the rate of non-Hispanic white applicants on all types of loans. Black and Hispanic applicants were also charged higher interest rates more often. They carried annual percentage rates that were at least 1.5 percentage points above the "average prime offer rate" for loans of a similar type.

May 29

The NBC reported that a poll showed 64 percent of the respondents said racism remains a major problem in US society and 45 percent said race relations in the United States were getting worse. About 30 percent of them thought race was the biggest source of division in America today. Four in 10 African Americans said they had been treated unfairly in a store or restaurant because of their race in the last month.

May 30

The Washington Post website reported that according to organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate crimes and hate groups had increased. Racists might feel emboldened to publicly vent their hatred because they saw senior government leaders doing something similar.