The Editor, Sir:

The United States has released yet another damning report on Jamaica, giving the nation failing grades in human rights practices. This amounts to double standards at best.

Blacks have always suffered at the hands of the police forces in the good old U.S.A. I have seen firsthand the abuse of NYC police against Jamaicans and black Americans. Who gives America the right to rate other countries when all is not well at home? Who made America the conscience of the world? Police brutality is the number one concern of blacks in America. Excessive force is the norm with the police in America. How about the number of innocent blacks who have been framed by the police? Some have been executed for crimes they did not commit. If it was not for DNA testing, more innocent blacks would still be in jail. The Jamaican Government needs to protest this with the U.S. government.

What goes on in Jamaica is our business and we can deal with it ourselves. It is time for the U.S.A. to stop intruding in the affairs of independent countries and start to fix the problems in their own homeland. What about the treatment of prisoners being held in Cuba by the U.S. government?

I am, etc.,

JOHN PETERS

jacadac@yahoo.com

Ocho Rios, St. ann

Via Go-Jamaica