“America by far is the world’s leading human rights abuser at home and abroad, responsible for more high crimes of war and against humanity than any other nation in history - countless tens of millions of lives lost by its rage for dominance since the republic’s inception, including genocide against its Native people,” Stephen Lendman from Illinois told the Tasnim News Agency.

Following is the full text of the interview.

Tasnim: On Thursday, the governor of the US state of North Carolina declared a state of emergency after one person was shot Wednesday night and four officers were injured as a fresh wave of protests gripped the city of Charlotte in the wake of a police-involved shooting of a black man. As you know the United States has been a self-declared champion of human rights across the globe. However, the recent killings of African-Americans by the US police have raised questions about Washington's own record. What is your take on the human rights situation in the US?

Lendman: Whenever headline-making violent incidents happen in America, like recent ones in New York, New Jersey, Charlotte, Tulsa, Washington and elsewhere, I either suspect state-sponsored false flags (like Orlando, Boston Marathon bombings and San Bernardino affecting innocent patsies) or killer cops lethally shooting unarmed Black youths (primarily) with impunity.

America by far is the world’s leading human rights abuser at home and abroad, responsible for more high crimes of war and against humanity than any other nation in history - countless tens of millions of lives lost by its rage for dominance since the republic’s inception, including genocide against its Native people.



Tasnim: African American communities in the US are increasingly falling victim to violence and discrimination. Why? Do you believe the white-dominant system has waged a war on the blacks?

Lendman: America is hugely racist, its society shifting from chattel to wage slavery, Jim Crow to its modern-day version, and freedom to mass incarceration, mostly affecting people of color.

According to Law Professor Michelle Alexander, “(m)ore black men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1950 before the Civil War began.”

Racist drug laws largely affect “poor communities of color.” In America’s inner-cities, most Black youths can expect criminal injustice prosecutions one or more times during their lives.

Over 60% of Black men born in 1965 or later without high school degrees (following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination) have prison records.

They’re marked for life, targeted by militarized cops, leaving them vulnerable to re-arrest or death.

America is more police state than democracy, its inner-city streets battlegrounds, Blacks and other people of color terrorized.



Tasnim: Back in June, the US Senate rejected a series of gun-control measures just days after the Orlando nightclub massacre shooting, including proposals to keep weapons out of the hands of people on terror watch lists. Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States. What do you think about the Senate move?

Lendman: The Senate’s June legislation and earlier congressional measures pertaining to gun control were meaningless efforts accomplishing nothing.

US minority communities nationwide are war zones. Around 100,000 gun-related incidents happen annually. Killer cops lethally shot over 1,100 mostly defenseless victims last year, overwhelmingly unarmed Blacks.

America is a violent culture. I’m mindful of it every time I’m out on Chicago streets. Cops wear bullet-proof vests in public view. Their victims have no protection from state-sponsored viciousness.