Coming from California, USA, I could easily relate to the fact that Americans are some of the most abusive people in the world and that includes human rights as well. One particular kind of human rights abuse is to take it to the extreme by suing people that haven’t really done anything wrong to you when it’s actually your fault, such as the lady that sued McDonalds for burning herself with coffee. Another ridiculous scenario happened when a thief got injured while robbing a place and sued the owner of the property and won compensation. The fact that everyone wants easy money and in some cases they can get it has made USA the leader in this particular kind of human rights abuse. Of course we, Americans are not abusers of “real human rights” we’re just abusers of certain kinds of human rights that make us ‘legal and legit’ according to our pathetic judicial and legal system. One may wonder why many Americans are actually running away from ‘the best country in the world’.

About one year ago I spent 5 days in a California county jail and about $10,000 in bail bonds, lawyers and court fees for saving someone that tried to commit suicide. How would such a thing happen in a country that leads the movement of human rights? Well, one can easily be misguided by politics and internal affairs. USA doesn’t really care about human rights, it cares about its own “rights” to abuse and manipulate whatever it wants, especially when there are “dollars” involved in some way. So, here’s how this particular situation fell between the cracks of the “best” human rights system in the world.

After I wrestled the knife out of his/her* hands, he/she ran to the toilet and swallowed a large amount of sleeping pills (medical records show the exact details). I called the ambulance and got the person to the closest hospital. Not long after the paramedics declared me a hero for saving his/her life, the police came and arrested me for domestic violence because of the broken finger. That might have happened while I wrestled the knife out of his/her hand and letters to the judge and the court from the ‘victim’ clearly state that. Besides, there were no marks, bruises or anything else on the body to indicate physical abuse. Obviously they didn’t bother to investigate the whole situation, to see that I stayed at the hospital all day with the suicidal person and to realize that I was the one that saved his/her life. All they wanted was an easy arrest of a person that would not create any difficulty or threaten the life of any of the police force which instead of displaying ‘we serve and protect’ should display ‘we abuse and deflect’. It was in December and it gets pretty cold at night. I wasn’t even allowed to get a jacket to put on. I was dragged out in the cold with just a shirt on, cuffed and shoved in the police car before they even told me why they arrested me for. I could understand if there was someone at the house whose life I endangered and they had to get me out immediately. The person they accused me of domestic violence against was still in the hospital and was far from me and from any ‘danger’ I could have inflicted. And just for the simple fact that I happened to study abroad, they put a $250,000 bond on me when the bond for cases like this shouldn’t exceed $50,000; and those are cases with a lot more physical harm than an accidental broke finger.

When the person that attempted suicide wrote numerous letters to the ‘honorable’ judge and to district attorney explaining the exact situation and that I tried to help and not to hurt him/her it was to no avail. On top of that, the judge and district attorney argued that I threatened the victim into writing the letters. How could I have done that when the ‘victim’ wrote letters while I was still in jail and then wrote more after we had no physical and verbal contact except email? Furthermore, the district attorney told him/her “your statements have no use or value; it’s up to us to decide what really happened”. That’s really interesting. The eye witness’s statements have no value, but those that haven’t seen a thing or know anything have the right to decide? Where are the freedom and the right to speak? He/she wasn’t even allowed in the courtroom before the judge to present evidence and to speak. According to their decisions it would have been safer and better for me to let the person overdose and die and this mess would have never happened. Let’s pretend they are ‘right’, they always are anyway, and move on to more interesting abuse of human rights. While in jail, they brought into my cell a guy from Guatemala, a nice fellow that was arrested for the simple fact that he didn’t have a visa (he overstayed or had no proper papers). They gave him three months in jail after which they were going to deport him. Now, if he’s not a criminal, why can’t he just be deported? He couldn’t call collect to his home country and no one from his family even knew he was in jail. And this happens in a country that runs around the world bragging about how good it is about human rights and protecting any citizen of the world. How is this any better than North Korea which we Americans strongly despise? At least North Korea released our two reporters after Clinton went there. I doubt they released this guy any time soon. That would mean less money for the county jail, less money for the judge and less money for the district attorney, or so it seems. Otherwise, why would they keep this guy in an USA jail that long except to abuse his human rights?

While losing my English teaching job because of this ridiculous human rights system and losing precious time I could have done research, I realized one thing while celebrating the “Thanksgiving” holiday in a place I never thought I’d be in a million years. People that should be kept in jail were going right back out in a few days just to return a few days later and people that have no business there end up with a life ruining vacation because our human rights system in USA is pretty darn good about protecting its citizens. It’s obvious this is a monopoly of money making scheme between the legal system and the state tax dollars and many innocent people are abused and unjustly dealt with while others get away with free meals and a place to sleep. The judge could have easily checked the hospital records, reports, my personal records; read the letters addressed to him both by organizations that I work with and the so called ‘victim’, and could have easily served justice. But instead, he disrespected himself by doing the very opposite and by abusing me, simply because he could. The district attorney on the other hand was no better. She could have been fair to the evidence available, being more than enough evidence to easily serve justice was but instead she decided to discriminate and abuse human rights.

I hope one day our justice system come to realize that they’re abusing the human rights of not only US citizens but also citizens of the world. No one arrested our forefathers when they first arrived in what was once a great country. Isn’t it ironic that “Those who accuse others are guilty of the same thing”? We should stop preaching ‘human rights’ around the world until we start doing it at home.

If we, global citizens can somehow convince people that money is in many ways the root of all evil and our justice systems are no exception, perhaps we can hope for less abuse of human rights in the future and better treatment of all global citizens.

Note:*his/her, he/she are used to keep the person’s ID confidential