Interviews during 2018-2020: on Crime
Mike Bloomberg:
I was wrong to rely on stop-and-frisk policing
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized for his administration's controversial reliance on stop-and-frisk policing in a speech at a Brooklyn church Sunday morning, saying, "I was wrong and I am sorry."The stunning reversal comes as
Bloomberg is expected to jump into the 2020 presidential race. "I got something important wrong. I got something really important wrong--stops on the black and Latino community," a contrite Bloomberg said as he addressed congregants at the Christian
Cultural Center in East New York, one of the city's largest black churches. "I want you to know I realize back then I was wrong," he added. "And I am sorry."
Stop-and-frisk is one of the most controversial legacies of Bloomberg's twelve years in
City Hall--struck down by a federal judge for its disproportionate effect on minority communities, but one Bloomberg continued to cling tightly to for years as he claimed credit of the city's sinking crime rates.
Source: New York Post on 2020 Democratic primary
Nov 17, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Repeal 1994 crime bill, decriminalize truancy
Elizabeth Warren has released a criminal justice reform plan that takes aim at two of her chief rivals: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Warren targets the controversial 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped write, as well as school truancy, an issue which
Harris took a firm approach to as a prosecutor in California. Warren called for a repeal of the bulk of the 1994 crime bill. Supporting the decriminalization of truancy, Warren advocates for "positive behavior interventions" over punishments.
Source: Slate.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Tom Steyer:
Regrets Farallon's $34M investment in corporate prisons
A key liability [in Steyer's portfolio history] is Farallon's 2005 investment of $34 million in Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), which runs migrant detention centers on the US-Mexico border for ICE. Many of the roughly two dozen Democrats in the
presidential race have denounced profits from incarceration as immoral. "I deeply regret that Farallon made that investment, and I personally ordered the investment in CCA to be sold because it did not accord with my values then or now," Steyer said.
Source: Los Angeles Times on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 14, 2019
Joe Biden:
1994: Billions for state prisons but fewer billions than GOP
In a campaign speech, former Biden claimed that his record on the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act had been "grossly misrepresented." He distanced himself from some of the key provisions of the law, including its billions in funding
for states to build prisons: "I didn't support more money to build state prisons. I was against it. We should be building rehab centers and not prisons," he said.He was misrepresenting his own record. Biden expressed unequivocal support, in both
1994 and in the years following, for the law's billions in funding to build state prisons. He argued in 1994 that the law should include less money for prison construction than Republicans wanted to spend--but he emphasized that he too wanted to spend
billions.
Biden's campaign did not dispute our conclusion that Biden did support this kind of spending. Biden "was referring to how Republicans wanted to provide more money for prison construction than he felt was right," said a campaign spokesperson.
Source: CNN FactCheck on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 7, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
OpEd: Ambiguous record on 1994 crime bill
Sanders defended his vote as a compromise that included a ban on assault weapons. He voted in favor of one amendment allocating more money for prison funding, though 49 Democrats voted against it, including now Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The amendment gave
$10.5 billion in grants to states for prison construction, one of the bill's most contentious legacies. As recently as 2006, Sanders' Senate campaign website cited his vote as the top example of his commitment to "tough on crime legislation."
Source: NBC News on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 23, 2019
Joe Biden:
1992: pro-death penalty; 2019: congrats on ending it
Joe Biden said in a 1992 speech that criminal justice legislation he was pushing was so strict that "we do everything but hang people for jaywalking." Two years later, his signature crime bill made dozens of additional offenses punishable by death.
But in a little-noticed remark earlier this month in New Hampshire, Biden seemed to offer a decidedly different stance on the death penalty.
Fielding a question from a voter aligned with the ACLU about how he'd reduce the federal prison population,
Biden gave a long and winding answer: He defended his crime bill, advocated for reforms to the criminal justice system involving nonviolent and drug offenders, and said he was proud of his work with Barack Obama to cut the federal prison population by
3,800.
Then, unprompted, Biden added: "By the way, congratulations to ya'll ending the death penalty here." Biden's campaign would not comment on his answer, or shed light on whether he's changed his position on the death penalty.
Source: Politico.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 20, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Restore voting rights for ex-cons, but not those in prison
When you have served your sentence, then part of being restored to society is that you're part of the political life of this nation again. And one of the things that needs to be restored is your right to vote.
But part of the punishment when you're convicted of a crime and you're incarcerated is you lose certain rights. During that period, it does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 22, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Death penalty is racist; mandatory minimums too
While discussing criminal justice reform at the National Action Network, Buttigieg said, "As we work to end mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenses, here too we must be intentional about fixing disparities that have deeply unfair racial consequences.
It is time to face the simple fact that capital punishment as seen in America has always been a discriminatory practice and we would be a fairer and safer country when we join the ranks of modern nations who have abolished the death penalty."
Source: The Hill: 2020 Democratic primary & National Action Network
Mar 27, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Expand death penalty if police officers are attacked
But as recently as May 2017, O'Rourke broke with the majority of his Democratic House colleagues to vote for a bill that expanded the federal "list of statutory aggravating factors in death penalty determinations" to include the murder or "targeting"
of a law enforcement officer, firefighter or other first responder. In effect, the bill, called The Thin Blue Line Act, proposed making it easier to execute a defendant if they attacked law enforcement.
Source: Huffington Post "Death Penalty" on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 20, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Capital punishment is an inequitable, unfair, unjust system
The three-term congressman from El Paso was asked about a recent decision by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign an executive order halting executions for the state's 737 death row inmates. "As president, would you suspend capital punishment at the
federal level?" he was asked. "I would. It's not an equitable, fair, just system right now -- the guarantees and safeguards against wrongful prosecution, the disproportionate number of people of color who comprise our criminal justice system,"
Source: Fox News, "Capital punishment," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Federal and state moratorium on death penalty
Kamala Harris said that there should be a federal moratorium on executions. The senator from California discussed the matter on National Public Radio, a day after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California granted reprieves to 737 death row inmates and
signed an executive order placing a moratorium on executions.Harris was asked if there should be "a federal equivalent" to Newsom's order. She said, "Yes, I think that there should be."
Asked if no one would be executed if Harris was president,
she responded, "Correct, correct."
As California's attorney general, Harris defended the state's use of the death penalty. But in a statement this week, she said it is "immoral, discriminatory, ineffective, and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars."
She noted that black and Latino defendants were more likely to be executed than white defendants, as were poor defendants with poor legal representation versus wealthier defendants with good legal representation.
Source: Associated Press on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
Kamala Harris:
2004: no death penalty for cop killer; 2019: apply to all
Harris says, "The symbol of our justice system is a woman with a blindfold. It is supposed to treat all equally, but the application of the death penalty--a final & irreversible punishment--has been proven to be unequally applied."As Harris launched
her presidential bid, she said she was running as a "progressive prosecutor." But she has drawn scrutiny from some liberals for "tough on crime" positions she held as a California prosecutor, with her stance on the death penalty among those issues.
As a district attorney in 2004, she drew national headlines with her decision not to seek the death penalty for the killer of a San Francisco police officer. That decision, announced days after the officer's death, enraged local law enforcement officials
However, a decade later, she appealed a judge's decision declaring California's death penalty law unconstitutional. While Harris has personally opposed the death penalty, she has said that she defended the law as a matter of professional obligation.
Source: Associated Press on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
Cory Booker:
Rich-and-guilty treated better than poor-and-innocent
Sen. Cory Booker slammed the 47-month prison sentence for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Booker, who introduced the landmark First Step Act last year to implement a series of prison reforms, said he was "ticked off" about what he
said was a light sentence for Manafort, but that he was not surprised: "We have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. We prey upon the most vulnerable citizens in our nation.
Poor folks, mentally ill folks, addicted folks and, overwhelmingly, black and brown folks."A federal judge sentenced Manafort to nearly four years in prison on eight charges of bank and tax fraud, but his sentence will
be cut to three years and two months after he was given credit for time served. Federal sentencing guidelines suggested Manafort be sentenced to 19 1/2 to 24 years.
Source: Tal Axelrod in The Hill on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 8, 2019
Joe Biden:
1993: Don't care why "predators" act; put them in jail
Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them. Biden, chair of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments on the Senate floor a day before a vote was scheduled on the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
Biden said he did not care what led someone to commit crimes. "I don't care why someone is a malefactor in society. I don't care why someone is antisocial. I don't care why they've become a sociopath," Biden said. "We have an obligation to cordon them
off from the rest of society, try to help them, try to change the behavior. That's what we do in this bill. We have drug treatment and we have other treatments to try to deal with it, but they are in jail."
Source: CNN KFile, "Predators," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
Joe Biden:
1994 Crime Bill got help for first time offenders, not jail
A spokesman for Biden said high violent crime rates at the time was key context to understanding the bill, adding that the 1994 crime bill included funding "to keep individuals who committed first-time offenses and non-violent crimes out of prison and
instead in treatment and supervision," and that Biden advocated for prevention funding. Two provisions of the bill that led to Biden's strong support of its passage: bans on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons and the Violence Against Women Act.
Source: CNN KFile, "Predators," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
Joe Biden:
1990s: Supported tough-on-crime; 2019:considers those racist
At an event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, Biden repeated earlier statements of regret for supporting tough-on-crime measures in the 1990s, which included provisions now widely considered racially discriminatory and
at least partly responsible for current incarceration rates, in which African Americans are significantly over-represented.
"The bottom line is we have a lot to root out, but most of all the systematic racism that most of us whites don't like to acknowledge even exists," Biden said during a breakfast held by the Rev.
Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. "We don't even consciously acknowledge it. But it's been built into every aspect of our system."
Source: Washington Post, "Desegregation," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 7, 2019
Andrew Yang:
Police unfairly target minorities
Yang believes that minorities are unfairly targeted by police and has proposed assigning
every officer a body cam to aid in investigations.
Source: Townhall.com: 2020 Democratic primary "Candidate profiles"
Feb 6, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
We must cut down on recidivism for non-violent offenders
Finally, we should provide meaningful reentry to help cut down on recidivism for those who committed non-violent crimes. That starts with strong rehabilitation services, counseling and access to preventative health care. It continues by banning the
box on job applications so those formerly incarcerated can work and pay taxes, returning drivers licenses so they can get to that place of employment. and ensuring their constitutional right to participate in civic life by voting is protected.
Source: O'Rourke OpEd in Houston Chronicle: 2020 Democratic primary
Aug 27, 2018
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021