Democratic candidates debate in Detroit Michigan, July 30-31, 2019: on Crime

Andrew Yang: Makes more sense to pay people to keep out of jail

Bill de Blasio: Blames the feds for letting bad cops stay on police force

DE BLASIO: The Garner family are waiting for justice and are going to get justice in the next 30 days, in New York. You know why? Because for the first time, we are not waiting on the federal Justice Department, which told the city of New York that we could not proceed because the Justice Department was pursuing their prosecution. And years went by, and a lot of the pain accrued. And in the meantime, what I'm working on is making sure--and I have for five years--there will never be another tragedy, there will never be another Eric Garner, because we're changing fundamentally how we police.

Jay Inslee: Mass incarceration comes from school-to-prison pipeline

I believe you can draw a straight line from slavery through Jim Crow through the banking and the redlining to mass incarceration. But you know what other line I can draw? 88% of the people in our prisons dropped out of high school. Let's fix our school system and maybe we can fix the prison pipeline that we have.

Joe Biden: In 1990s we released 38,000 inmates, changed police rules

Julian Castro: End qualified immunity to hold police officers accountable

CASTRO: I agree with Senator Booker that a lot of what Vice President Biden helped author in 1994 [in the Crime Bill] was a mistake. But let me say, when we talk about criminal justice reform, there are a lot of things that we can talk about -- sentencing reform, cash bail reform, investing in public defenders, diversion programs. I'm proud that I'm the only candidate that has put forward a police reform plan, because we have a police system that is broken and we need to fix it. And whether it's the case of someone like Tamir Rice or Michael Brown or Eric Garner, we need to ensure we have a national use of force standard and that we end qualified immunity for police officers so that we can hold them accountable for using excessive force.

Julian Castro: Remove from the streets police officers who kill civilians

CASTRO: A good example, the other day, of the Department of Justice not going after Officer Pantaleo. [On July 17, 2014, NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, arrested Eric Garner, who is black, for selling cigarettes; Garner died from Panataleo's chokehold -Ed.] He used a chokehold that was prohibited by NYPD. He did that for seven seconds. Eleven different times Eric Garner said that he couldn't breathe. He knew what he was doing, that he was killing Eric Garner, and yet he has not been brought to justice. That police officer should be off the street.

Q: Mayor de Blasio, why is that police officer still on the force?

DE BLASIO: The federal Justice Department told the city of New York that we could not proceed because the Justice Department was pursuing their prosecution. And years went by, [so the City will now prosecute].

Kamala Harris: FactCheck: Denied DNA evidence in 1980s; backtracked in 2018

The context: Gabbard is referring to the case of Kevin Cooper, a Death Row inmate convicted of quadruple murder in 1983. Harris, during her tenure as attorney general, declined to use advanced DNA testing in the widely publicized case.

Last year, after the New York Times published an investigative piece on Cooper's case, then-Sen. Harris backtracked, saying, "I feel awful about this," and that she hoped the governor would order the testing. In February, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered new tests. The results are pending.

Kamala Harris: I chose the unpopular thing to NOT seek the death penalty

[Is that true? FactCheck by Vox.com:]

In 2004, as district attorney of San Francisco, she refused to seek the death penalty against a man convicted of shooting police officer Isaac Espinoza. She faced opposition from fellow Democrats; Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for the death penalty at the officer's funeral. But Harris didn't budge--an act of principle that cost her key political allies (as she received almost no support from police groups during her first run for attorney general in 2010).

Kirsten Gillibrand: I understand that whiteness protects white kids

And I can talk to those white women in the suburbs that voted for Trump and explain to them what white privilege actually is, that when their son is walking down a street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.

When their child has a car that breaks down, and he knocks on someone's door for help, and the door opens, and the help is given, it's his whiteness that protects him from being shot. That is what white privilege in America is today. Together we can make our community stronger.