Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015

APRIL

April 2

The Washington Post website reported that Eric Harris, an unarmed 44-year-old black man, was shot on a street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a police officer inadvertently fired a gun at him.

April 8

A report from USA Today website said the U.S. government started keeping secret records of Americans' international telephone calls nearly a decade before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, harvesting billions of calls.

April 9

The Fox News reported on its website that as a punishment, a 50-year-old mentally-ill inmate Darren Rainey was taken to the showers for nearly two hours with the water reportedly rigged to a scalding 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Corrections officers even taunted Rainey, asking him how he liked his shower. He was finally scalded to death.

April 12

Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man, was arrested in Baltimore on April 12. He died later while in police custody. His death, reportedly a result of inappropriate behavior by police, sparked large-scale "Justice for Freddie" protests. A curfew was instituted, and the National Guard was brought in.

April 15

Reuters reported that Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American man, was fatally shot in the back by a white police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, on April 4.

In March, an unarmed black teen Tony Robinson Jr. was shot by a white police officer in Wisconsin, triggering a series of demonstrations. The demonstrators protested against the use of lethal weapons against minorities.

On the same day, Think Progress reported on its website that fast food workers walked off the job in 230 cities on April 15, staging the largest-ever strike in their movement aimed at a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage and the right to form a union.

April 21

The Washington Post website reported that Daniel Covarrubias, an unarmed 37-year-old man, was shot by police in Lakewood, Washington.

April 25

The Washington Post website reported that David Felix, an unarmed 24-year-old black man, was shot by police in an apartment building in New York.