In 1963, Martin Luther King said in a public speech: “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” On Dec. 3, I once again visited Lincoln Memorial in Washington. On a wall of the Memorial is engraved the text of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The speech expresses his vision that “everyone is equal”. On the same day, in New York, a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer following the chokehold death of a black man, Eric Garner, causing fury around the US.

There is a video that shows what happened in the case: Eric, 43, was selling untaxed cigarettes in the street on Staten Island, and several policemen tried to arrest him. One of the policemen secured him in a chokehold, while he pleaded desperately that he could not breathe. Garner later died of a heart attack in hospital. He left 6 fatherless children, and it is not hard to imagine how difficult his families’ life will be.

The US jury’s decision to not indict the white policeman has given rise to doubts as to whether the US really has justice. The event even made US president Barak Obama sigh: “Not all American are equal before law...” Protesters deplored the jury’s decision, with many expressing the view that it is hard to imagine that such a thing could happen in the US in 2014.

This case reminds us of the incident that happened in Ferguson, Missouri in August. Another Grand Jury did not indict Darren Wilson, a former police officer, who shot dead Michael Brown in August in Ferguson, on grounds of lack of evidence. But ironically, in the Staten case the jury ignored the video evidence before them.

The video suggests that the eyes, body language and words of the white policemen exuded discrimination as they enforced the law. Though there are no laws against discrimination in the US, the discriminative mindset has not faded away. Under the cloak of justice, evil things still lurk. This is the crux of the problem that needs to be dealt with.

This article was edited and translated from 《美国“司法公正”外衣下的龌龊》, source: People's Daily, Author: Wen Xian

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