The resentment that black social justice activists have been feeling
towards Bill and Hillary Clinton's 1994 crime bill reached its apex at a
Philadelphia campaign rally Thursday in which Bill Clinton was heckled
and faced down signs like "CLINTON Crime Bill Destroyed Our
Communities."
In February, Michelle Alexander, law professor
and author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness" penned an essay titled, "Hillary Clinton doesn't deserve the Black vote."
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994 contained an expansion of the federal death penalty to
include drug offenses, the "Three Strikes, You're Out" rule, and
billions in funding for police, prisons, and states that made it harder
for people to get parole (though Mr. Clinton neglected to mention this
when he mentioned that most prisoners are incarcerated by the state).
But if Bill and Hillary Clinton were the pot,
black politicians, activists, and pastors were the kettle. Their support
of punitive measures actually paved the way for Clinton. It began with
the man Ebony Magazine called the "front-line general in the war on
drugs."
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