Samuel Studer
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Former President Bill Clinton was recently confronted about his 1994 crime bill by protesters at a campaign rally for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Though he said he “liked protesters,” Bill Clinton was not afraid to express his opinion on how he felt the bill changed America.
“Because of the bill, we had a 25-year low in crime, a 33-year low in the murder rate, and because of that and the background-check law, we had a 46-year low in deaths of people involving hand gun violence,” he said to the protesters.
It is important to understand these thoughts. When this bill was created, millions lived in fear. Crime was a hot topic in the country. President Clinton worked on trying to get to the root of the problem. On a more modern note, he is not only defending his policy but those put forward by his wife’s campaign.
Yet, is his stance in the bill correct? It is hard to ignore the fact that decades of incarceration have done damage. The major benefit of the bill was to put more cops on the streets. At the time that this bill was passed, there were a large number of violent crimes. Putting more officers in communities would help police departments respond to the large volume of calls they were receiving.
Departments were also told to create their own approach to changing the community. President Clinton talked about how this would help in poor urban areas and restore faith that the government could positively change these areas.
These supposed benefits have come with some significant downfalls. Many African Americans, particularly in cities like New York, have been stopped for no legal reason. It is not acceptable for people to be subject to unconstitutional or inappropriate stops.
The Black Lives Matter movement has tried to rally for change, and this hit close to home in Iowa. According to the Human Rights Watch, “In Minnesota and Iowa, blacks constitute a share of the prison population that is 12 times greater than their share of the state population.” Other estimates, like from the Sentencing Project, put the number of blacks sent to prison at 13 times the white population, compared to their overall population. These statistics show that changes need to be made in our criminal justice system.
Police should be better monitored so that issues like this do not arise. Nobody should have to worry about corrupt police officers. The second issue is the number of people who are incarcerated. Prisoners cost the United States millions of dollars each year. We should train police officers to help get people off the street and reduce crime rather than simply making arrests. There should be a bigger focus on trying to help people and making sure that they get the help they need. If we can give offenders a helping hand, we will run in to far fewer problems. The drug offenders who are taking up space in our jail wouldn’t pose a major threat if they had the tools to be successful.
We need to find a new solution to crime rather than dwell over this bill. Former President Clinton might be trying to defend his wife’s policies, but it is time for change. Understanding how this bill failed will help to lead to the future of crime policies.