Hillary Clinton
Related: About this forumRegarding the 1994 Crime Bill
There is an article in The Nation (a publication that has endorsed Bernie Sanders) that accuses Bill and Hillary Clinton of having been fully responsible for the mass incarceration of black youths and implies that they purposely wanted to have that end effect. They also accuse Hillary of racist comments when she said some gangs were super predators, without empathy and without emotion. Yes, she did say that but she never said it was black gangs or latino gangs. I remember those days and white gangs were prevalent too. People were begging Congress to do something. The law was in regard to FEDERAL crimes, not the state crimes that have the real problem with mass incarceration. While I am hardly brave enough to fight the battle with the Bernie supporters in DU with so little posting experience here, I do want to share a link with you in case you have to defend these accusations being bandied about by Bernie supporters everywhere. OH... and Bernie voted for this law, as did much or all of the Congressional Black Caucus. It was not in any way taken as being racist at the time. It's being dredged up for that purpose now.
I hope I'm not duplicating something that was already posted here. I don't have a ton of time to spend reading DU these days, and I also hope I did the link correctly.
[http://www.vox.com/2016/2/11/10961362/clinton-1994-crime-law]
radical noodle
(7,990 posts)It's in Vox Explainers and the title is The Clinton-backed 1994 Crime Bill had many flaws. But it didn't create mass incarceration.
I apologize for my inability to post a link.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)here and paste into the body of the post.
Edited to add the link: http://www.vox.com/2016/2/11/10961362/clinton-1994-crime-law
pandr32
(11,446 posts)Happy V-day to you!
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)I hope you had a wonderful V-day, too!
radical noodle
(7,990 posts)I tried that but it seemed not to work so I tried the link button. Next time I'll try copy/paste.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)And yes, we were begging somebody to do something. I remember the police tape, the bodies, the pcp, abandos, kids in the system, teenage boys dying in the streets everyday, rape rape rape, it was hell. I was so glad to get up outta there after the riots. I went back but it was way calmer. Everybody was in jail.
radical noodle
(7,990 posts)The graphs show the amazing increase in the prison population long before Bill Clinton took office.
Mother Jones:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/02/get-your-memes-right-1994-crime-bill-didnt-create-mass-incarceration
Slate:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2016/02/michelle_alexander_blames_hillary_clinton_for_mass_incarceration_she_shouldn.html