Austria: Police Attack On US Man Brings Up Racism

In the Czech city of Brno, a policeman was charged with misuse of power and causing bodily harm resulting in death after a January incident claimed the life of a 43-year-old Vietnamese man. Three policemen came to the man's apartment after a neighbor complained about noise. The other two were charged with misuse of power for not intervening. Police have apologized in a letter sent to the Vietnamese Embassy.

Still, Austria's police have a particularly spotty record when it comes to ethnic minorities.

In May 1999, 25-year-old Nigerian immigrant Marcus Omofuma died while being deported after police strapped him to his airplane seat and taped his mouth and nose shut. And in 2006, police officers assaulted a Gambian man, identified only as Bakary J., at a warehouse after he refused to be deported, seriously hurting him.

In both cases, the officers received suspended sentences. In the Omofuma case, the three officers were found guilty of negligent homicide but acquitted of torture leading to death. In the Bakary J. case, three of the officers had been charged with physically abusing the man. A fourth was charged with neglect of his duties by doing nothing to stop his colleagues.

In April, Amnesty International released a report saying it was concerned skin color was too often a factor in Austrian police interventions and found shortcomings in the country's recording and public availability of statistics on racist crimes.