Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015
(China Daily) Updated: 2016-04-15 08:27JULY
July 2
The Washington Post website reported that Victor Emanuel Larosa, an unarmed 23-year-old African-American man, was shot by police in a yard in Jacksonville, Florida.
July 7
The Washington Post website cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying that the US-led coalition was responsible for the deaths of 162 civilians, including 51 children and 35 women.
July 10
The USA Today website reported that some top psychologists helped the CIA and the Pentagon bolster torture. Two former presidents of the American Psychological Association served as members of a CIA advisory panel. The association's ethics office, led by Stephen Behnke, also obtained a contract to train Pentagon interrogators.
July 12
A BBC website report cited WikiLeaks as saying that the United States had been spying on Japanese cabinet officials, banks and companies for at least eight years ago. WikiLeaks says the United States was aware of Japan's internal discussions on issues such as trade talks, climate change policy and nuclear and energy policy－as well as the contents of a confidential briefing in Prime Minister's Shinzo Abe's residence. WikiLeaks had previously released files showing the United States spied on Germany, France and Brazil－like Japan, all allies.
July 14
A Pew Research Center analysis found that children make up a larger share of the United States' impoverished than of the population as a whole－those younger than 18 make up about a quarter of the total population, but make up about a third of all Americans in poverty. African-American and Hispanic-American children in particular are overrepresented.
July 17
The Washington Post website reported that US civil rights organizations accused North Carolina of limiting the time for early voting, ending same-day registration and banning voters from casting ballots in places other than their home constituencies through legislation. The report said the conduct seriously damaged the electoral rights of the African-American voters.
July 19
The Washington Post website reported that Samuel Debase, an unarmed 43-year-old African-American man, was shot by police in Mt. Auburn, Ohio.
July 28
The Huffington Post reported on its website that former US President Jimmy Carter said in an interview that "Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and US Senators and Congress members. So, now we've just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over." The preferences of the average American appeared to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy.
July 31
The Financial Times reported on its website that the US law allows unlimited contributions to super PACs by individuals and corporations, which changed the political landscape of the nation and enabled billionaires and millionaires to donate a huge amount of fund to presidential candidates more effectively.
Some affluent families hoped to influence the election results via their wealth. The number of donors who contributed more than $1 million to presidential candidates would swamp the 2016 presidential race like never before.
On the same day, the USA Today website reported that according to a March report by the National Association of Realtors, the gap between rental costs and household income had been widening to unsustainable levels in the United States.
According to a report to the United Nations by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in the United States, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex youth are disproportionately represented in runaway and homeless youth programs and child welfare systems and 42 percent of them have been sexually exploited.
I’ve lived in China for quite a considerable time including my graduate school years, travelled and worked in a few cities and still choose my destination taking into consideration the density of smog or PM2.5 particulate matter in the region.
