Subject: CTR TPs: HILLARY CLINTON’S REMARKS ON RACE AND OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 12:54:53 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*HILLARY CLINTON’S REMARKS ON RACE AND OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM*

 *BACKGROUND: **At an event Tuesday in New York for the Robert F. Kennedy
Center for Justice and Human Rights, Hillary Clinton once again addressed
the issue of race relations and our criminal justice system in light of
recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island.  She addressed this
issue in Boston earlier this month, as well as in San Francisco this
summer. *

*Highlights from Hillary’s remarks on December 16, 2014:*

·       “We can stand up together and say ‘Yes, black lives matter.’”

·       “[Robert Kennedy] understood everyone in every community benefitted
when there is respect for the law, and when everyone in every community is
respected by the law.”

·       “Policies, politics, priorities matter, but values matter even
more. And it is possible…to restore a sense of community and potential to
families struggling, worrying, disappointed, discouraged, revitalizing and
re-stitching the fraying fabric of American life. It is possible to keep us
safe from terrorism and reduce crime and violence without relying on
torture abroad or unnecessary force or excessive incarceration at home.”

·        “African American men are still far more likely to be stopped and
searched by the police, charged with crimes, and sentenced to longer prison
terms…a third of all black men face the prospect of prison during their
lifetimes, and by some estimates, young black men are more than 20 times
more likely to be shot dead by a police officer than a young white man.”

·       “We know that there are so many police officers out there every day
inspiring trust and confidence, rather than fear and frustration; honorably
doing their duty; putting themselves on the line to save lives, not take
them. We can build on that. We can work to restore the balance to our
public life, our economy.”

*Highlights from Hillary’s remarks on December 4, 2014: *

·       “I know that a lot of hearts are breaking, and we are asking
ourselves, ‘Aren’t these our sons? Aren’t these our brothers?’”

·       “Each of us has to grapple with some hard truths about race and
justice in America…When one stops and realizes a third of all Black men
face the prospect of prison during their lifetimes, what devastating
consequences that has for their families, and their communities, and all of
us.”

·       “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance.
And I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come
together as a nation to find our balance again.”

·       “I’m very pleased that the Department of Justice will be
investigating what happened in Ferguson or Staten Island. Those families
and those communities and our country deserve a full and fair accounting as
well as whatever substantive reforms are necessary to ensure equality,
justice, and respect for every citizen…I support the President’s
announcement of a task force on policing.”

·       “We all know there are decent, honorable, brave police officers out
in our communities every single day, inspiring trust and confidence rather
than fear and frustration. So let’s learn from the best examples. Let’s
invest in what works.”

·       “The most important thing each of us can do is to try even harder
to see the world through our neighbors’ eyes. To imagine what it is like to
walk in their shoes, to share their pain and their hopes and their dreams.
These tragedies did not happen in some far-away place. They didn’t happen
to some other people. These are our streets, our children, our fellow
Americans, and our grief…We are all in this together, we can all do better.”

*Highlights from Hillary’s remarks on August 28, 2014:*

   - “Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown, as a mother, as a
   human being, my heart just broke for his family because losing a child
   is every parent's greatest fear and an unimaginable loss.”

   - “This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold
   any community together fray. Nobody wants to see our streets look like a
   war zone, not in America. We are better than that.”

   - “We cannot ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system.
   Inequities that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and
   equality.”

   - “Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were
   three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as
   black drivers, instead of the other way around. If white offenders
   received prison sentences ten percent longer than black offenders for the
   same crimes. If a third of all white men – just look at this room and
   take one-third – went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That
   is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so many
   of the communities in which they live.”

   - “I applaud President Obama for sending the Attorney General
   to Ferguson and demanding a thorough and speedy investigation. That’s both
   appropriate and necessary to find out what happened, to see that justice
   is done, to help this community begin healing itself.”

   - “It was 51 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called us
   to live out the true meaning of our creed, to make the dream real for
   all Americans. And that mission is as fiercely urgent today as when he
   stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the hot August sun all those
   years ago. So we have a lot of work to do together.”