The prisons are overflowing. There are now 1.7 million prisoners in the U.S., one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. And the death penalty is being used more and more frequently and with less and less and less mercy. Asylum seekers are treated as criminals and jailed, some in very bad conditions. Amnesty's report paints a very troubling picture of official violence by police and prison officials in this country.
Police brutality extends from coast to coast and it is happening every day.
But the problem is that unless the brutality of the police is kept in check, then nobody is safe. That's the risk, that it will continue to spread. It is getting worse because of impunity. Many incidents of police brutality are settled out of court. Settlement out of court, of course, is not a recognition of liability.