Interviews during 2017-2019: on Crime
Jo Jorgensen:
Take the profit out of locking up citizens
Q: How would you address the overcrowding of jails?A: We must take the profit out of locking up citizens.
This is one of the few legitimate functions of government--the government should be running the jails and prisons, not private companies.
Source: AFA iVoterGuide on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 3, 2020
Jo Jorgensen:
End no-knock raids, qualified immunity, militarized police
Q: Restrict police use of force and increase public oversight? Jo Jorgensen: Should not deploy federal agents into cities, uninvited, to try to fix a problem created by government. End no-knock raids, civil asset forfeiture, qualified immunity,
militarized police.
Howie Hawkins: Yes to increased public oversight. Yes to comprehensive data collection. Militarized police should not be used as campaign "props" or as "occupying military force."
Source: CampusElect on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Aug 30, 2020
Gloria La Riva:
Allow prisoners to unionize to negotiate living conditions
We call for support services for prisoners and prisoners' families to reduce ostracism, maintain family ties, and provide for non-degrading visitation policies. We call for the abolition
of prison labor for profit, forced labor ("chain gangs") and the use of prison labor to perform state services. We call for the right of prisoners to organize unions and cooperative groups to negotiate for better living conditions
Source: Socialist PSL Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Aug 3, 2020
Howie Hawkins:
Ban private prisons; moratorium on prison construction
Ban private prisons. Implement a moratorium on prison construction. Redirect funds to alternatives to incarceration. Provide incarcerated individuals the
right to vote by absentee ballot in the district of their domicile, and the right to vote during parole.
Source: Green Party Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
Jul 12, 2020
Kanye West:
I'm against the death penalty
On criminal justice: "'Thou shalt not kill.'
I'm against the death penalty."
Source: Forbes Magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 8, 2020
Kanye West:
One of my to-do lists is to end police brutality
One of my to-do lists is to end police brutality. The police are people, too. In the George Floyd case, there was a Black guy that went to jail and it was his first day on the force. If it's your first day on the force and this cop with 18 violations
already starts filing out, are you going to jump in front of that person and lose your job that same day? He probably didn't realize that the cop was going to take it that far. I'm one of the few Black people that would speak openly like this.
Source: Forbes Magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 8, 2020
Jo Jorgensen:
Repeal all victimless crime laws: gambling, drugs, sex
We favor the repeal of all laws creating "crimes" without victims, such as gambling, the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services.
We oppose the prosecutorial practice of "over-charging" in criminal prosecutions so as to avoid jury trials by intimidating defendants into accepting plea bargains.
The Libertarian Party supports the decriminalization of prostitution.
We assert the right of consenting adults to provide sexual services to clients for compensation, and the right of clients to purchase sexual services from consenting sex workers.
Source: Libertarian Platform adopted by 2020 presidential hopeful
May 22, 2020
Justin Amash:
Take accusations seriously, but follow due process
I think it's important that everyone have due process. If an accusation is made, you can't just say the person is guilty without a trial and a proper venue and all that. You can't just rush the judgment on it. Because accusations can be made that are
false and we should be willing to acknowledge that. At the same time, we should respect people who are making the accusation and give them the full opportunity to make their case and to present evidence and have that evidence corroborated.
Source: Reason magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
May 1, 2020
Don Blankenship:
Served sentence, called himself a "political prisoner"
Blankenship was convicted on one charge of conspiring to violate federal mining safety regulations, a misdemeanor. He was acquitted on felony charges. Prosecutors claimed that the former CEO's safety efforts at the company were a "fa‡ade."
He was sentenced to one year in prison for the crime. The former executive maintained his innocence, and while serving time in a prison near Bakersfield, California is said to have described himself as an "American political prisoner" in a blog post.
Source: Newsweek magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Oct 22, 2019
Justin Amash:
Introduced legislation to end federal death penalty
He announced on Twitter that he was introducing legislation to prohibit the federal death penalty, after the Department of Justice announced that it would end an unofficial moratorium on
federal executions that had been in place for two decades.
Source: The New Republic magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jul 29, 2019
Donald Trump:
Central Park 5 admitted guilt; exoneration doesn't matter
Donald Trump has refused to apologise for saying the Central Park Five should be executed, 17 years after they were exonerated with DNA evidence.The president was asked about the case in light of Ava DuVernay's four-part Netflix series about the
1989 case. "You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt," Mr Trump said after a reporter asked him whether he would apologise to the five men.
Five black and Latino teenagers were convicted of attacking a 28-year-old white
female jogger who was raped and beaten almost to death during a run in Central Park on 19 April, 1989. Authorities vacated their convictions in 2002, after [another] convicted murderer and serial rapist confessed to the
attack and said he had committed it alone. DNA evidence backed up his confession. In 2014, the City of New York settled a wrongful conviction lawsuit with the five men for $41m.
Source: The Independent (UK) on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Jun 18, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
1995 burglary arrest: charges dropped by U. Texas
According to a heavily redacted narrative of O'Rourke's May 1995 burglary arrest by the University of Texas at El Paso Police Department, O'Rourke and two associates allegedly broke into the yard of the facilities management building at the school,
triggering an alarm. One of the officers who responded to the scene said he saw "three subjects in the middle of the compound running in three different directions."
"I immediately yelled at them to freeze and also gave foot pursuit," the report says. "I observed two subjects run toward the main doors of the control center and lost sight of them when another subject was seen running behind parked vehicles
westbound toward the green-house." The charges against all three were later dropped.
The El Paso district attorney then and now, Jaime Esparza, says he has no recollection of the burglary case and his office could not locate any files on it.
Source: Texas Tribune on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Apr 24, 2019
John Hickenlooper:
Record of being pro-active against police misconduct
We created an office of the independent monitor to make sure that any allegation of police misconduct -- outside the mayor's control -- got an independent assessment. We created a total comprehensive program to re-evaluate how police operated.
We created the civilian oversight commission to monitor this.
Then we made sure that every police officer got crisis intervention training so that they could understand when someone was in a different head, in a mental health crisis or from a foreign culture, and really began looking at,
did they have non-lethal forms? I would try to make sure that the federal government was an active partner with communities all across the country to make sure that we stamp this out.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 20, 2019
John Hickenlooper:
Suspend death penalty; it's too random & doesn't deter
I started out [believing] an eye for an eye. I spent 14 months getting the national experts on the death penalty. It makes no sense. It's not a deterrent. It's expensive. It prolongs misery. And it's random, depending on where that crime occurs, and in
many cases, whether the killer is African-American or Latino, that has a lot to do with who gets tried on a death penalty charge. The random injustice of that is something this country should never stand for. I certainly would suspend the death penalty.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 20, 2019
Donald Trump:
Keep death penalty; don't forget the victims
President Trump blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom for halting executions for the state's 737 death row inmates. "Defying voters, the Governor of California will halt all death penalty executions of 737 stone cold killers. Friends and families of the
always forgotten VICTIMS are not thrilled, and neither am I!" Trump tweeted.The tweet comes as Newsom signs an executive order that would halt all executions at San Quentin State Prison, closing a new execution chamber. Newsom's order will go against
the wishes of California voters, who in 2016 backed a measure to speed up executions.
Meanwhile, Trump has been a supporter of the death penalty. In October, Trump called for the death penalty for those who kill police officers. "Reducing crime
begins with respecting law enforcement," Trump said. "We believe that criminals who kill our police officers should immediately, with trial, but rapidly as possible, not 15 years later, 20 years later--get the death penalty."
Source: Fox News on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 12, 2019
Cory Booker:
Make lynching a hate crime
- Booker has made criminal justice reform one of his top issues in the Senate, and scored a victory last year with the passage of the bipartisan First Step Act.
- The law, which overhauled sentencing guidelines and prison conditions, was an
updated version of a bill Booker first sponsored in 2015. Booker's personal connection to the criminal justice system, which he has called a "cancer on the soul of our nation," goes back more than two decades to when he ran free clinics to help
Newark residents expunge their criminal records.
- Booker joined the Senate's two other black members--Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and
Tim Scott, R-S.C., in introducing a bill to make lynching a hate crime.
- Booker also cited concerns about Jeff Sessions' record on civil rights at the Alabama senator's confirmation hearing for attorney general.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Feb 1, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Progressive prosecutor: fix broken criminal justice system
Before her 2016 victory in the Senate race, Harris made her career in law enforcement. Harris is likely to face questions about her law enforcement record, particularly after the Black Lives Matter movement and activists across the country pushed for a
criminal justice overhaul. Harris's prosecutorial record has recently come under new scrutiny after a blistering opinion piece in The New York Times criticized her repeated claim that she was a "progressive prosecutor," focused on changing a broken
criminal justice system from within.Harris addressed her law enforcement background in her book. She argued it was a "false choice" to decide between supporting the police and advocating for greater scrutiny of law enforcement. She wrote, "When
activists came marching & banging on the doors, I wanted to be on the other side to let them in."
Harris supported legislation that passed the Senate last year that overhauled the criminal justice system, particularly when it comes to sentencing rules.
Source: Juana Summers in Time Magazine on 2020 Presidential Hopefuls
Jan 21, 2019
Kirsten Gillibrand:
Advocate for victims of sexual assault
- Sexual assault and harassment: Reform handling of sexual assault in the military and on college campus.
- Gillibrand made a name for herself in the Senate as an advocate for victims of sexual assault.
- The "Campus Accountability and
Safety Act" she co-sponsored in 2014 would increase resources and training and set national standards for handling sexual assaults on college campuses.
-
She also believes the military must reform how it handles such assaults; she introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would remove decisions about assault cases from the chain of command.
- She was also one of the first Democrats to call for then-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign in 2017 after he was accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct.
Source: PBS News hour on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
Jan 16, 2019
Tom Steyer:
Backs bill to release accused criminals who can't pay bail
Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, who has been pushing for President Donald Trump's impeachment and recently spent $3 million to register Latino voters, also is working hard this week to resuscitate a California state bill that would end the process
of demanding thousands of dollars in cash bail from suspected criminals. The measure is aimed at trying to ensure that accused criminals awaiting trial do not remain in jail solely because they cannot afford to pay bail.
Source: S.Crabtree in FreeBeacon.com on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Mar 10, 2018
Bill de Blasio:
NYC enjoying major drop in crime rate
In fact, crime has fallen in New York City in each of the major felony categories--murder and manslaughter, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and car thefts. The numbers, when taken together, portray a city of
8.5 million people growing safer even as the police, under Mayor Bill de Blasio, use less deadly force, make fewer arrests and scale back controversial practices like stopping and frisking thousands of people on the streets.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Dec 28, 2017
Deval Patrick:
Wrote letters to parole board for convicted rapist
Patrick had written two letters to the Massachusetts parole board seeking the release of Benjamin LaGuer, a convicted rapist serving a life sentence. The Globe subsequently reported that Patrick had helped pay for DNA tests LaGuer claimed would
exonerate him (they didn't). "I have never met Mr. LaGuer in person," Patrick wrote in one letter. "But, thanks to a lively exchange of correspondence over the years, I do feel I know him."
Source: The New Republic on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 6, 2006
Deval Patrick:
I don't need to be lectured about crime
Patrick did something that Democrats branded as "soft on crime" seldom do: He faced the attacks head-on. "I'm the only one in this race who's actually ever sent anyone to prison," he practically shouted. "Let's talk about crime," he continued. "I've
been a victim of crime. You can't grow up in a place like the South Side of Chicago without understanding the impact--on families, on communities--of crime. I don't need to be lectured to about crime."
Source: The New Republic on 2020 presidential hopefuls
Nov 6, 2006
Page last updated: Nov 01, 2021