Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2017

Report was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, on Tuesday

JANUARY

January 6

The Associated Press website reported that an army veteran drew a gun from his checked luggage on arrival at the Fort Lauderdale airport and opened fire, killing five people and wounding eight.

January 11

The Pew Research Center revealed that since 2015, almost 500 blacks have been fatally shot by police. Their deaths and the disputed circumstances surrounding many of these incidents have sparked widespread protests over police tactics.

January 27

The US administration signed an executive order saying that it was necessary to suspend for at least four months the resettlement of refugees from around the world - and those from Syria indefinitely; and for at least 90 days block entry of visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

January 28

Protests broke out in many cities around the US against the White House order suspending the entry of refugees and others from several majority-Muslim nations.

January 31

The USA Today website reported that referring to the order as a "Muslim Exclusion Order", 27 plaintiffs from across the US filed a lawsuit and complained that the order "implements an impermissible religious gerrymander that divides foreign nationals, even those lawfully present inside the US, into favored and disfavored groups based on their faith".

FEBRUARY

February 13

The US Economic Policy Institute released a report saying that average wealth for white families was seven times higher than average wealth for black families. Median white wealth was 12 times higher than median black wealth. More than one in four black households have zero or negative net worth, compared to less than one in 10 white families without wealth.

February 21

The Forbes website reported that student loan debt was the second-highest consumer debt category - higher than both credit cards and auto loans. There were more than 44 million borrowers with $1.3 trillion in student loan debt in the US alone. The average student in the Class of 2016 had $37,172 in student loan debt.

February 22

The CNN website reported that a total of 214 people have been indicted since Jan 20 on felony rioting charges in connection with the Inauguration Day protests in downtown Washington.

February 23

The Washington Post website reported that on the evening of Feb 22, hundreds of people took to the streets of Anaheim, California, for a protest against an off-duty Los Angeles police officer firing his gun during a confrontation with teenagers a day earlier. A total of 23 people were arrested during the protest.

February 24

The Guardian website reported that one of the first things the new US administration did was to make a huge number of middle-income families considerably worse off. Just hours after the inauguration it reversed the previous administration's decision to cut Federal Housing Administration insurance premiums by 0.25 percent. Millions of US citizens are evicted each year as they struggle to make rent: these people are the true forgotten poor.

MARCH

March 6

The website of the Urban Institute reported that 33 percent of households in public housing have a member aged 62 or older and 39 percent have children, while 21 percent of residents have a disability. In a report on health conditions of people in public housing in the District of Columbia, 33 percent of the surveyed adults reported having a child with asthma, 21 percent reported having an overweight child, and 14 percent reported having a child with a chronic health condition.

March 7

The National Registry of Exonerations reported that African-Americans are far more likely to be wrongfully convicted of crimes such as murder, sexual assault and illegal drug activity than white people, according to a review of exonerations from 1989 to October 2016. Of the 1,900 defendants convicted of crimes and later exonerated, 47 percent were African-Americans - three times their representation in the population.

March 14

The CBS website reported that a retired Navy admiral is among nine military officers who have been indicted in a burgeoning bribery scandal. Retired Admiral Bruce Loveless and the other officers accepted the services of prostitutes, lavish meals and fancy trips from a businessman in exchange for helping his company. The indictment has charged more than 20 former or current Navy officials so far.

March 15

The Gallup company issued a poll showing that 42 percent of US citizens say they personally worry a "great deal" about race relations in the US, up 7 percentage points from 2016 and a record high in Gallup's 17-year trend. This is the third straight year worries about this issue have increased by a significant margin.

On the same day, the website of the Institute for Policy Studies reported that Wall Street banks handed out $23.9 billion in bonuses to 177,000 New York City-based employees in 2016, which were 1.6 times the combined annual earnings of all 1,075,000 US full-time minimum wage workers. Since 1985, the nominal value of the average Wall Street bonus has increased 890 percent, whereas the minimum wage has risen only 116 percent.

March 28

The Washington Post website reported that the US Congress proposed to wipe away landmark online privacy protections, a significant reworking of the rules governing internet access. If the legislation is approved, providers will be able to monitor their customers' behavior online and, without their permission, use their personal and financial information to sell highly targeted ads. "It means that Americans will never be safe online from having their most personal details stealthily scrutinized and sold to the highest bidder," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. It is "a tremendous setback for America".