Clinton calls for change in US criminal justice

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Hillary Rodham Clinton issued an impassioned call for overhauling an “out of balance” criminal justice system Wednesday, using her first major public-policy address as a presidential candidate to reflect on the recent unrest in Baltimore and push for an end to “the era of mass incarceration.”

Speaking at an urban- policy forum at Columbia University, Clinton recounted the recent killings of unarmed black men by white police officers, arguing that the chaos and rioting sparked by their deaths should prompt a national reckoning with long-standing and profound economic and racial inequalities.

“The patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable,” she said. “We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.”

Clinton spoke in the days after violence and protests have swept through the streets of Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal-cord injury while in police custody. With her remarks, she joined a bipartisan group of politicians who are rejecting the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s — including those trumpeted as a major achievement by the administration of her husband, Bill Clinton.

The emerging presidential field has been tested by the startling wave of rage that swept the streets of Baltimore. With smoke still rising from the city’s burnt buildings, many have struggled to calibrate their political response.

Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who might challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination, returned from Europe to walk the streets of his city.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, commenting during a Republican campaign swing in Puerto Rico, called both for an investigation into Gray’s death and “a commitment to the rule of law.” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who’s pushed for sentencing changes in Congress, blamed the unrest on a “breakdown of the family structure” while joking that he was glad a train he was traveling on through downtown Baltimore “didn’t stop.”