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mcar

(42,300 posts)
Mon Oct 28, 2019, 03:07 PM Oct 2019

On criminal-justice issues, Kamala Harris leads the pack

Xposted from DP.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287327120

By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
Oct. 28, 2019 at 10:15 a.m. EDT

The Post reported: “Sen. Kamala D. Harris announced Friday night that she would boycott a criminal justice reform event after it celebrated President Trump earlier in the day.” Her insistence that the sponsor be excluded bore fruit...

The latter strikes me as unconscionable as the first concern, and entirely contrary to the mission of historically black colleges and universities (HCBUs). As a result of her protest, the event sponsor was officially dropped and, more important, the event was opened up to students. “As a proud HBCU graduate and especially knowing these times and the challenges of these times, I believed that it was so critically important that the students be present, that their voices be heard,” she said.

That was a principled win for her, a demonstration of leadership and reaffirmation that having an HBCU graduate in the primary matters. Unfortunately, the stir over the sponsorship of the event overshadowed the substance of her remarks and her responses in the Q&A session....

In the remainder of her remarks and in the Q&A sessions, she spoke authoritatively on the need for reintroduction programs, anti-bias training and bail reform (which penalizes people because of lack of funds, which in turn results in job loss and protective services taking a child away while the parent sits in jail awaiting trial). She spoke with passion on the need to improve conditions for incarcerated women (issues of dignity including shackling women in delivery and denying feminine products). When it came to marijuana legalization, she insisted that there be justice “retroactively” for those incarcerated as a new, lucrative industry — selling the very product they had been incarcerated for possessing — springs up. That would include clemency and jobs in the new pot industry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/28/harriss-hbcu-visit/

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