On Friday, I wrote about the Black Lives Matter protest at Hillary Clinton's rally in Atlanta.
Today's Hillary News & Views begins with coverage of her expanded Criminal Justice Reform.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
Clinton endorsed legislation that would ban racial profiling by law enforcement, vowed to sign an executive order that would ban federal employers for asking job-seekers about their prior criminal convictions and pushed to eliminate the distinction between crack and powder cocaine in drug sentencing.
They are part of a broader package that Clinton’s campaign plans to unveil over the next few days.
She also rolled out the “African Americans for Hillary” group at Clark Atlanta University after a luncheon with black ministers headlined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. It’s her first public campaign appearance in Atlanta this year, although she has visited for private fundraisers.
“We have to take on the continuing abuses where oppression is more prevalent than opportunity,” said Clinton, adding: “We have to create those channels of opportunity so that we go from childhood to adulthood pursuing your dreams, instead of cradle to prison and seeing them die.”
The
Wall Street Journal reports:
Mrs. Clinton said white Americans needs to face the reality that discrimination is still real and bemoaned a string of black people who have died at the hands of police or in police custody.
“America’s long struggle with race is far from finished,” she said at a rally, which officially launched the group African Americans for Hillary.
At the rally, Mrs. Clinton repeated her call for an end to “mass incarceration” and said the nation should not outsource prisons to private corporations. She also reiterated her support for a ban on racial profiling by law enforcement officials.
And she made clear that she supports efforts to ban employers from asking about applicants’ criminal history at the initial stages of the hiring process, joining a movement known as “ban the box.”
“We believe in second chances, don’t we?” she said Friday. She said that as president, she would do what she could to change the approach of the federal government and federal contractors.
Earlier this year, Mrs. Clinton called for police to wear body cameras, for new rules governing “arbitrary, mandatory minimum sentences” and an expansion of alternative punishments for low-level offenders.
On Friday, she proposed that crack and powdered cocaine users be treated equally in sentencing.
“We’re talking about two forms of the same drug,” Mrs. Clinton said Friday. “It makes no sense to continue treating them differently.”
On Friday, Mrs. Clinton also backed legislation banning racial profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement. While in the Senate, Mrs. Clinton backed legislation aimed at achieving a similar objective, the campaign said.
CNN reports:
"Clinton will fight to ensure equal amounts of crack and powder cocaine carry equal sentences and apply this change retroactively," a Clinton aide said ahead of Friday's speeches.
Clinton, in an effort to reduce the federal prison population, will call for reducing the disparity between mandatory sentences of crack and powder cocaine to 1-to-1.
The 2016 candidate will also call for ending racial profiling, pledging to back legislation to ban racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, "by prohibiting them from relying on a person's race when conducting routine or spontaneous investigatory activities."
Clinton will argue that racial profiling is "generally ineffective" as a policing tool and "demeans large segments of our communities and subjects them to unwarranted scrutiny."
Since kicking off her campaign earlier this year, Clinton has pitched different aspects of criminal justice reform. Her first speech as a candidate was on addressing police brutality with body cameras and in July, Clinton told a largely black audience in South Carolina that it is time for the United States to confront "systemic racism."
"What is so really troubling is that if you compare statistics between white men and African American men, if they are stopped, if they are arrested, if they are charged, if they are convicted, if they are sentenced, there are clear undeniable racial disparities," Clinton said in July. "I think we have to admit this. We shouldn't try to gloss it over or it would go away."
Meanwhile, Clinton's vow to end private prisons sent their stocks tumbling on Friday.
Value Walk reports:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account is quite powerful. In late September when Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO, Martin Shkreli decided to raise the price of Daraprim, a treatment for HIV, from $13.50 per pill to $750, Hillary Clinton sent out a tweet detailing her outrage for the price increase. “Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I’ll lay out a plan to take it on,” Clinton’s tweet stated. The tweet sent the Nasdaq Biotech Index down -4.7%. While the index has recovered some losses, it still trades below the $360 high before the debacle.
On Friday, Hillary’s Twitter account spoke again and the market once again reacted. “We need to end private prisons. Protecting public safety…should never be outsourced or left to unaccountable corporations,” detailed Clinton’s latest tweet. Corrections Corp of America was down as much as -6% and the Geo Group slipped as much as -4.2% after the tweet surfaced.
Clinton attended a memorial for the slain churchgoers in South Carolina on Friday.
Gulf News reports:
The Democratic presidential favourite watched silently on Friday evening at an NAACP banquet in South Carolina as family members of “The Emanuel 9” took part in a memorial for nine people slain in June by a white gunman at a historic black church in Charleston.
“People in this room ... have shown grace and resilience,” Clinton said later, during remarks that drew multiple rounds of applause. She added that the city has inspired Americans who often “don’t know what to do about that kind of hate and violence stalking our land”.
Clinton framed the Emanuel slayings and the April killing of Walter Scott, a black man shot by a North Charleston police officer who has since been fired and charged with murder, as part of a trend. “The last few years have shone a bright light on the systemic effects of racism and injustice,” she said.
The answers, she said, include overhauling the US criminal justice system, tightening gun regulations and expanding economic and educational opportunities in communities held back by generations of institutionalised racism.
While in South Carolina, Clinton picked up yet another Union endorsement and yet another elected official's endorsement.
The Post and Courier reports:
“You hear all the time, South Carolina doesn’t need unions,” she said, referring to the stance repeatedly pledged by Republican Gov. Nikki Haley.
“You still have a lot of poor people in South Carolina,” Clinton said.
She also thanked Mayor Joe Riley for throwing his support her way.
“I am focused on the economy,” she said.
The 65,000-member International Longshoremen’s Association union announced its support earlier this week but had agreed to formalize and present the endorsement during Clinton’s address Saturday at the Charleston stevedore hall. Her “concern for working Americans has been loud and clear,” ILA national president Harold Daggett said in his endorsement message.
Clinton used the occasion of Halloween to skewer the GOP presidential field:
And ending on a lighter note, Clinton was also a popular costume for Halloween, and she met one of the many young girls who chose to dress as the potential first female president.
Time reports:
Sullivan Wood of Charleston, S.C., got the surprise of her life on Saturday when her Halloween costume earned her the opportunity to meet her idol. The 4-year-old dressed up as Hillary Clinton and went with her family to Clinton’s rally in Charleston. When campaign aides saw Wood’s outfit, she was brought backstage for an introduction to none other than the former Secretary of State herself, according to Buzzfeed News.
Crossposted at Hillary HQ.com, an independent, progressive blog committed to electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.