Shocking video puts focus on US human rights after police kill African American man

Minneapolis The killing of an African American man in a car by police and its aftermath that was videostreamed live by his girlfriend at a suburb here Wednesday night has put a harsh spotlight on the US which projects itself as the worlds guardian of human rightsThis was the second killing in two days of an African American by police that was caught on camera in the US which is in the throes of a highlypolarised election campaign where race has emerged as a contentious elementThe chilling video of the shootings aftermath in the local suburb of Falcon Heights here in Minnesota state showed 32year old Philando Castile slumped in the car seat with blood spurting through his Tshirt while a screaming police officer points a gun at him The victims girlfriend Lavish Reynolds says on the video Please Jesus dont tell me he is dead Please officer dont tell me you have done this to himHer young daughter who witnessed the shooting is also seen in the videoThe video next shows her being ordered to kneel on the street by police and later handcuffedReynolds describes in the video what happened after police stopped Castile for a broken tail light in his car saying he was shot four times Police just killed my boyfriend she says and appeals for people to come to the incidents location The videos release could not be delayed because it was instantaneously livestreamed on Facebook and reached millions who saw a shocking depiction of the incidentAlize Castile the sister of Castile said he was killed like an animal and called it a modernday lynchingIn the Tuesday incident a DVD seller was shot by police in Baton Rouge in the southern state of Louisiana The shooting of 37yearold Alton Sterling was captured on a cellphone by a bystander and on a cars dashboard cameraPolice had reportedly been called to the outside of a store by a homeless man who was begging and told them that a man was brandishing gun But the stores owner Abdullah Muflahi told CNN that he did not notice anything that warranted calling policeThe proliferation of cellphone cameras and video recording devices provide a definitive account of police encounters with civilians which previously could have been brushed aside without evidence questioning the official claimsMedia that track police shootings of civilians show a large number of African Americans killed about two every three days The Washington Posts tally was 123 African Americans killed so far this year and the Guardians 136Since the shooting of a teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson in Missouri in 2014 a renewed wave of protests have erupted around the nation and given rise to the Black Lives Matter movementNeither the White House nor the State Department that selectively criticise other countries over treatment of minorities had reacted to the Minnesota shooting as of Thursday morningThe head of the Minneapolis chapter of the African American civil rights organisation the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP Nekima LevyPounds described the latest incident as an innocent man being killed at the hands of the policeSoon after the shooting hundreds of protesters chanting Wake them up gathered outside the Minnesota governors mansion with signs proclaiming Black Lives Matter Governor Mark Dayton is a member of the Democratic Partyaffiliated DemocraticFarmerLabor Party in a state that prides itself on its liberal valuesCastile a longterm employee of the St Paul government schools system was a nutrition services supervisorThe acting chief of the suburban police force Jon Mangseth said that a gun was recovered at the sceneOn the video Reynolds said that Castiles gun was licensed and that he told the officer about it and said he was going to get his wallet that had his identification when he was shot She also said they had weed or marijuana in the carComplicating the racial situation the police officer who shot Castile may be of East Asian descent Reynolds described him as ChineseMangseth who did not identify the officer said that he was sent on paid leave