Hillary Clinton is set to release new information about her criminal justice platform in a speech in Atlanta Friday. She will call for banning the law enforcement practice of racial profiling and putting an end to treating crack and powder cocaine differently in sentencing,
reports Wesley Lowery.
“These proposals are only the first components of an extensive agenda to be rolled out in the coming days,” a Clinton aide said in an e-mailed statement. “That agenda will focus on three key areas: policing, incarceration, and reentry into society.”
The crack and powder cocaine distinction stems from a 1986 law that declared that a person convicted of crack cocaine possession got the same mandatory prison term as someone with 100 times the same amount of powder cocaine. Civil rights groups have long decried the law, arguing that treating crack and powder cocaine differently disproportionately and unfairly impacts African Americans since 80 percent of those convicted of crack cocaine possession are black. The Fair Sentencing Act passed in 2010 narrowed the 1986 law's sentencing ratio to 18:1. [...]
Clinton also plans to call for the passage of legislation that would end racial profiling by law enforcement, which has been on the legislative wish-list of some congressional Democrats for more than a decade. Clinton, who while in the Senate twice co-sponsored a proposed End Racial Profiling Act, will say that as president she will again support legislation to prohibit federal, state and local law enforcement officials from relying on a race to determine whether to investigate people during routine encounters, such as traffic stops.
Though Clinton has mentioned racial and criminal justice in other speeches and supports body cameras for all police officers, these are the first specifics she has unveiled on the matter.
Martin O'Malley and
Bernie Sanders were the first to release their plans.
5:07 PM PT: Black Lives Matters protesters interrupted Clinton's speech. Info here:http://www.cnn.com/...