On March 6, the U.S. Department of State released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006. As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights conditions in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but avoided touching on the human rights situation in the United States. To help the world people have a better understanding of the situation in the United States and promote the international cause of human rights, we hereby publish the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2006.

I. On Life, Property and Security of Person    

The life, property and personal security of people of the United States are affected by rampant violent crimes.

The U.S. Justice Department reported on September 10, 2006 that there were 5.2 million violent crimes in the United States in 2005, up 2.5 percent from the previous year, the highest rate in 15 years. Statistics released by the U.S. Justice Department in 2006 showed that in 2005 American residents age 12 or above experienced 23 million crimes; for every 1,000 persons age 12 or older, there occurred one rape or sexual assault, one assault with injury, and three robberies (Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Victimization, in: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs). Murder, robbery and other violent crimes reported in the United States jumped 3.7 percent in the first half of 2006 over the same period in 2005, with robbery alone up by a starling 9.7 percent. Murders that occurred in cities with population of between 500,000 and 1 million in the same period were up by 8.4 percent year on year (FBI: Violent Crimes up in 1st Half of '06. MSNBC.com, December 19, 2006, in: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11497293). In the first half of 2006 murder was up a whopping 27.5 percent in Boston. In Memphis murder increased 43 percent in 2006. In Cincinnati murder was up 19 percent in the first six months of 2006. Robbery increases for the first half of 2006 across the United States were stunning: Rochester, N.Y., up 47 percent; suburban Montgomery County, Md., up 37 percent; Minneapolis up 36.8 percent (Startling New Stats Show Cross-Country Crime Spike. ABC News, October 12, 2006). From January 1 to December 10, there were 384 slayings in Philadelphia, and the number exceeded the total toll of victims in 2005 (City Effort Needs to Grow. Editorial, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 12, 2006). During the first 11 months in 2006, 147 murders were reported in New Orleans. That means the New Orleanians were murdering each other at a rate of 73.5 murders per 100,000 residents, exceeding that of the nation's most murderous city Compton, California, whose rate was 67 murders per 100,000 people in 2005 (Crime Takes Hold of New Orleans. USA Today, December 1, 2006). Orlando, Florida, reported 42 murders in the first 10 months in 2006, nearly double the 22 slayings last year in the city of 200,000 people (USA Today, November 1, 2006). And in Washington, police department declared a crime emergency and a 10 p.m. curfew for juveniles in July 2006, after the city had 11 homicides in 13 days (Police Chiefs Cite Youths in Crime Rise, Call for More Federal Funds. The Washington Post, August 31, 2006). The Washington Post reported on December 14, 2006 that there had been 35 bank robberies in Montgomery County in 2006, with three banks robbed on December 13 within minutes of each other.

The United States has the largest number of privately owned guns in the world. The unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders. A report released by the U.S. Justice Department in 2006 said that in 2005, 477,040 victims of violent crimes stated that they faced an offender with a firearm. A Washington metropolitan police department report stated in 2006 that from 2001 to 2005, 901 of 1,126 homicide victims, or about 80 percent, were fatally shot, while the percentage in New Orleans was 92 percent (District Slaying Usually with Gun. The Washington Times, November 17, 2006). Chicago was hit with five slayings and three injuries on late May 20 and early May 21, 2006 (Weekend Shooting Kill 5. The Chicago Tribune, May 22, 2006). On November 16, Detroit reported two people killed and three injured within 10 minutes in the western part of the city (Detroit Man Charged with Murder, Assault in Apparently Random Shooting Spree That Killed 2. AP, November 20, 2006). In Kansas, Missouri, a man shot five people to death on December 16, including his longtime girlfriend and three of their children. He then killed himself (Man kills 5 in Family, Then Self. The Kansas City Star, December 17, 2006). And on Christmas Eve of 2006, a gunman opened fire at shopping people in a shopping mall in Florida, and then on the police, killing one man (Mall Shooter Likely Knew Victim, Police Say. CNN.com, December 24, 2006).

Campus shootings are rampant in the United States. The country reported three campus shootings in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Colorado within one week from the end of September to the beginning of October 2006. Five girls were fatally shot and six others injured during the shooting incident in an Amish school in Pennsylvania on October 2, 2006 (Man Shoots 11, Killing 5 Girls, in Amish School. The New York Times, October 3, 2006).

II. On Human Rights Violations by Law Enforcement and Judicial Departments  

In the United States, human rights violations committed by law enforcement and judicial departments are common.