Sen. Bernie Sanders made quite the claim about racism in America during the Democratic debate Friday night in New Hampshire.
“We have a racist society from top to bottom impacting healthcare, housing, criminal justice, education, you name it,” he said. “And clearly this is an issue that must be dealt with.”
Bernie:
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 8, 2020
"We have a racist society from top to bottom..." pic.twitter.com/2M6FX9UWyy
“We live in a racist society from top to bottom.”
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 8, 2020
No, Bernie. We live in the freest, most prosperous country in the history of the world. An experiment in which people from all over the world have come here to make a better lives. And they almost always have. The American dream.
Sanders went on to discuss criminal justice and said the current “system is broken.” More needs to be invested into jobs and education for young people, rather than in jails, he argued.
“We end the war on drugs, which has disproportionately impacted African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans,” he added. “We end private prisons and detention centers in America.”
The Vermont senator’s plan is to decrease the nation’s prison population by half, end mandatory minimum sentencing, legalize marijuana, and ban private prisons.
His campaign website explains more:
- End for-profit greed in our criminal justice system, top to bottom by: by banning for-profit prisons and detention centers, ending cash bail, and making prison and jail communications, re-entry, diversion and treatment programs fee-free.
- Ensure due process and right to counsel by vastly increasing funding for public defenders and creating a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimum number of public defenders to meet their needs.
- Cut the national prison population in half and end mass incarceration by abolishing the death penalty, three strikes laws, and mandatory minimum sentences, as well as expanding the use of alternatives to detention
- Transform the way we police communities by end the War on Drugs by legalizing marijuana and expunging past convictions, treating children who interact with the justice system as children, reversing the criminalization of addiction, and ending the reliance on police forces to handle mental health emergencies, homelessness, maintenance violations, and other low-level situations.
- Reform our decrepit prison system, guarantee a “Prisoners Bill of Rights,” and ensure a just transition for incarcerated individuals upon their release.
- Reverse the criminalization of communities, end cycles of violence, provide support to survivors of crime, and invest in our communities.
- Ensure law enforcement accountability and robust oversight, including banning the use of facial recognition software for policing. (BernieSanders.com)
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