Of the violent crimes, the estimated number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters increased 1.8 percent, and that of robberies increased 7.2 percent.

Throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft, according to the FBI report.

In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every year, according to a Reuters story on December 19, 2007.

The USA Today reported on December 5, 2007 gun killings have climbed 13 percent overall since 2002.

On April 16, 2007, the Virginia Tech University witnessed the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history with 33 killed and more than 30 others injured, according to AFP.

Two separate gun killings in Salt Lake City and Philadelphia claimed 8 lives and injured several other people on February 12, 2007, according to the Associated Press.

The report points out that law enforcement and judicial departments in the United States have abused their power and seriously violated the freedom and rights of its citizens.

Cases in which U.S. law enforcement authorities allegedly violated victims' civil rights increased by 25 percent from fiscal year 2001 to 2007 over the previous seven years, according to statistics from U.S. Department of Justice.

However, the majority of law enforcement officers accused of brutality were not prosecuted in the end.

From May 2001 to June 2006, 2,451 police officers in Chicago received 4 to 10 complaints each, 662 of them received more than 10 complaints each, but only 22 were punished. Furthermore, there were officers who had amassed more than 50 abuse complaints but were never disciplined in any fashion, according to statistics released by University of Chicago.

The United States of America is the world's largest prison and has the highest inmates/population ratio in the world. A December 5, 2007 report by EFE news agency quoted statistics of U.S. Department of Justice as saying that the number of inmates in U.S. prisons have increased by 500 percent over the last 30 years.

America's human rights records can be best described as tattered and shocking. The facts enlisted above are only a tip of an iceberg, the document says.

It is high time for the U.S. government to face its own human rights problems with courage, take actions to improve its own human rights records and give up the unwise practices of applying double standards on human rights issues and using it to suppress other countries, according to the report.

This is the ninth consecutive year that the Information Office of the State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to answer the U.S. State Department annual report.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2008)