Africa Focus: Kenyan analysts condemn U.S. civil rights record after Baltimore unrest

The civil unrest in Baltimore against police brutality highlights what analysts' term "institutionalized racism" against the black population in the United States, Kenyan experts have said.

The case of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old who died in police custody in Baltimore, illustrated the depth of police brutality, marked by the beating of pregnant women, assaults on unarmed children, the elderly and even the clergy in Baltimore, a city whose political leadership is black-dominated.

"It is clear institutional racism is a fact of life in the United States," Steve Ndegwa, a social commentator told Xinhua in Nairobi on Wednesday.

"These violent protests in the city of Baltimore over the death of a young African American male in the hands of the police illustrate the depth of racism and unfair treatment of minorities in the U.S. despite progress in civil rights," he added.

The U.S. justice system's response to cases of police brutality against the black population has been taken to reflect a trend of overall institutionalized hostility against certain races.

Police in Baltimore have also reportedly engaged in extortion schemes, leading to the jailing of uncooperative victims.

Dr. Martin Nguru, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Diplomacy and International Studies, said poor distribution of opportunities amongst the minorities have pushed blacks to margins of society.

"Unless the U.S. government deals with issues of inequality in a decisive way, these tensions will continue to erupt and they will not portend well for the U.S. image internationally," Nguru warned.

Protests erupted in Baltimore this week after the city's Police Chief and the Mayor failed to offer a plausible explanation to the circumstances leading to Gray's death in police custody.

"The Mayor and the Police Chief in Baltimore have presided over a city government that oppresses their own people," said John Otieno, a Kenyan living in New Jersey. "They simply failed to explain the circumstances of Gray's death and the city exploded into riots."

Nguru said the outbursts in Baltimore highlight the urgency of dealing with inequality within America itself, a society which has shown that unfair distribution of opportunities could lead to a worse global society in general.

While analysts see the protests as an avenue to ignite fresh re- examination of the human and civil rights issues in the U.S., signs are that no major efforts are underway amongst the local city administrations to institute reforms.

"Black America is going through tumultuous times. Poverty in the slums has reached alarming levels," said Otieno, who is also a newspaper columnist. "Drug abuse has rendered hundreds of thousands or millions; folks with no clue about what is good or bad, no income and no future."

Otieno regretted the presence of a justice system in the U.S. has perpetrated an institutionalized system of oppression against the blacks.

"This is a justice system peculiar to America, where people unable to pay court fines for traffic offenses; cannot vote and cannot obtain driving licenses. They relegate the blacks to life on the margins of society," he said.

"These protests are an indicator that despite the U.S. being the largest democracy, the country does not embrace democratic principles in total," Nguru said.

"Racism and intolerance to minority groups is still prevalent in this century despite the values and virtues advocated by rights activists such as Martin Luther King in the 1960s," he said. Endi