Joe Biden defends 1994 crime bill: ‘Every black mayor supported it’ and continues to oppose police funding

Former Vice President Joe Biden admits that parts of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that led to mass incarceration within the United States and continues to devastate Black and brown communities were a “mistake,” but reiterated that he was met with with broad support from black leaders and that he continues to oppose police funding.

During a town hall in Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden, the bill’s lead creator, said times were different then. “The Black Caucus voted for this decision, all the black mayors supported it,” he said.

By touting the Violence Against Women Act that was a part of the bill, Biden placed blame on states for harmful parts of the laws, reasonably than arguing that there was something inherently improper with the bill itself.

“But this is where the mistakes came in,” he said. “The mistake was what the states did locally.”

What Biden conveniently leaves out are the state incentives included within the bill. He also disregarded how Democrats push “tough on crime” rhetoric when it’s convenient and discuss social justice when it’s not.

“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state-run prison cells,” Biden said in 1994 on the Senate floor. “I would like to see the conservative wing of the Democratic Party.”

Following the passage of the bill, signed by then-President Bill Clinton, many states soon adopted their very own version of “three strikes” laws and were granted Truth in convictions construct and expand prisons. Additionally, the AtlanticTodd S. Purdum reports: “A 2002 Research by the Urban Planning Institute found that between 1995 and 1999, nine states adopted such laws for the first time, while 21 others changed existing laws to qualify for the funds. By 1999, such laws existed in a total of 42 states. At the same time, many states have passed their own, more stringent sentencing laws, which have only exacerbated this trend.”

Criminal Act had widespread black support, but not “every black mayor,” as Biden said. The NAACP then called it “a crime against the American people” When it passed in 1994, it did so with the assistance of the overwhelming majority of the Congressional Black Caucus and with the support of Black NIMBY community leaders who believed that increasing criminal penalties would save “good” black children from the “bad” black children who were allegedly involved into criminal activities. Professor Michelle Alexandra he explained that some leaders were reluctant to support the bill and expected reinvestment in Black communities – in schools, higher housing, health care and jobs. But that did not occur.

Before the 1994 crime bill could pass the House, Clinton agreed to remove Sec Racial Justice Act– which might allow incarcerated people to challenge their death sentences based on data showing that racial bias was an element during their trial.

The bill also removed $3.3 billion – two-thirds of which got here from prevention programs – and a provision that may have allowed 16,000 low-level drug offenders to be released early.

Today, the United States is the most important prison guard on the planet. In 2019, the previous vice chairman, speaking in regards to the crime bill at a breakfast in Washington held to have a good time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ninetieth birthday, said:This was a giant mistake that was made. “The experts told us ‘there’s no going back with crack’… it’s a generation-long trap.”

Despite this reality, and as protests against police violence shock and change the world, Biden remained steadfast in his opposition to The Movement for Black Lives calls for opposition to police funding. But he reiterated his position that nobody must be imprisoned for drug use, that marijuana must be decriminalized and that folks with a history of cannabis possession must be cleared. Instead of prisons, he said the United States should as an alternative construct drug rehabilitation centers and make treatment mandatory.

Of course, not all drug use is problematic, and mandatory rehabilitation just isn’t much different from a jail sentence. Moreover, most researchers agree that there isn’t a evidence that mandatory rehabilitation works. – according to a world evaluation by Boston Medical Center.

After a town hall meeting in Philadelphia, Stef Feldman, a Biden campaign staffer, tweeted that Biden was discussing “Crime Bill 86,” not the 1994 crime bill. In fact, Biden sponsored and co-authored the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 ., which created recent mandatory minimum sentences for drugs and sentencing disparities for crack and cocaine…which was reduced but not removed by President Barack Obama. Biden was also a co-sponsor Drug Abuse Prevention Act 1988.

He, together with a segregationist – and avowedly racist – senator. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), led Comprehensive Audit Act 1984which expanded penalties for drug trafficking and federal civil asset forfeiture, allowing law enforcement to seize property without proving the person was guilty of a crime.

With these pieces of laws in mind, perhaps the Biden campaign will likely be best served by specializing in defending “parts” of the 1994 crime bill and blaming the states for the remaining.