In an unusually impassioned speech, Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a pointed assessment of race in America on Wednesday, lamenting the recent deaths of young black men and calling for overhauling the “out-of-balance†criminal justice system on display on the smoke-filled streets of Baltimore.
In her first major policy speech since announcing her presidential run, Mrs. Clinton spoke forcefully about the damage done, ticking off the names of the unarmed African-American men who have died at the hands of white police officers in recent months.
“From Ferguson to Staten Island to Baltimore, the patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable,†she said.
“Not only as a mother and grandmother, but as a citizen, a human being, my heart breaks for these young men and their families,†Mrs. Clinton said. “We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.â€
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The speech at Columbia University marked the first time Mrs. Clinton has delivered a substantive policy address in a campaign that had until Wednesday drawn more attention for the Democratic candidate’s head-nodding and note-taking at round-table campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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But it will hardly be the last time Mrs. Clinton discusses race and reform to the criminal justice system, which has indelibly emerged as a central issue for presidential candidates from both sides.
Mrs. Clinton’s speech came as the emerging presidential campaign, characterized so far by upbeat announcement speeches and mostly abstract agendas, confronted shocking scenes of violence and rage in a city not an hour away from the White House.
The unfolding situation in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, is only the latest impetus for Mrs. Clinton and her potential rivals to address race and police tactics.
Ticking off a litany of problems with the criminal justice system and the cycle of prison and poverty in black neighborhoods that “tears at your soul,†Mrs. Clinton said there is something “profoundly wrong†when “yet again brave police officers have been attacked in the line of duty†and when 1.5 million black men are “missing†from their communities because of incarceration and premature death.
She called for an end to “an era of mass incarceration†and for a review of sentencing measures.
“We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,†she said.
“The violence has to stop,†Mrs. Clinton said in addressing the protests in Baltimore. “But more broadly, let’s remember that everyone in every community benefits when there is respect for the law and when everyone in every community is respected by the law.â€
Some of the proposals Mrs. Clinton put forth on Wednesday, like the need for body cameras for police departments across the country, were not new, but her impassioned plea for alternative punishments for petty drug crimes and offering assistance to the mentally ill made Mrs. Clinton the first 2016 candidate to wade in depth into an issue that has shaken the country and demanded responses from both sides of the political aisle and the White House.
Many of the 2016 contenders seemed either caught off guard or uncertain of how, or even whether, to respond.
Jeb Bush on Tuesday planted a foot in two angry worlds, demanding justice for Freddie Gray and the rule of law in riot-battered Baltimore.
Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital seeking the Republican nomination, evoked his own time as a resident of Baltimore, sounding like a man who felt betrayed by his former neighbors.
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And Rand Paul sounded oddly off-key, chuckling about the terror he has felt while traveling by train through downtown Baltimore. “I’m glad it didn’t stop,†he said.
For those seeking the White House, the conflagration in Baltimore exposed a complicated truth: The racial comity that the election of Barack Obama seemed to promise has not materialized, forcing them to grapple with a red-hot, deeply unresolved dynamic that strays far from their carefully crafted messages and favored themes.
“I don’t think any of the candidates want or expect the summer of 2015 to be like the summer of 1968,†said Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican political strategist who is not aligned with any campaign.
A number of people “crafted this tacit bargain in their heads,†he said, speaking of Mr. Obama’s election. “This is going to be the end of the ugly parts of racial division in American.â€
It has not been the end.
Reactions ranged from the personal to the doctrinaire, from compassionate to flippant. Former Gov. Martin O’Malley rushed back on Tuesday from paid speechmaking in Ireland to the West Baltimore neighborhood he once oversaw as mayor, seeming at once heartbroken and eager to project calm.
Amid drum circles and hovering helicopters, Mr. O’Malley spoke with city residents — some admiring, others not — at an intersection cater-corner to the burned-out shell of a CVS Pharmacy. “I think there’s a lot of good people in our city,†he said. “The longer arc of Baltimore, the longer arc of our history, is black and white people coming together to make a better life for themselves.â€
Mr. Carson denounced “irresponsible individuals†and “uncontrolled agitators†in the city. But he tempered his frustration with milder suggestions, counseling change through “peaceful conversation and policy ideas.â€
With few exceptions, the candidates first grappled with the city’s turmoil from the safe distance of a written statement released by aides or a brief posting on social media.
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a likely Republican candidate, remained in the shelter of his cautious Twitter stream. “Our prayers for restoration of peace in Baltimore,†he posted on Twitter, without elaboration.
Mr. Bush, traveling Tuesday in Puerto Rico, offered a more expansive response.
Continue reading the main story“There has to be a commitment to the rule of law,†he said of the rioters, but he insisted on an investigation into Mr. Gray’s death “as quickly as possible so that people know that the system works for them.â€
The moment is vexing for those with long records in government, who must answer for a criminal justice system — now the source of so much rage — whose construction they sometimes financed or supported. As governor of Florida, Mr. Bush backed mandatory sentencing for drug offenders, rules that many Republicans now view as unfairly consigning a generation of black men to prison.
Mrs. Clinton faces a similar burden — in her case, by association. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, the most significant crime legislation ever passed and a measure that critics say contributed to a climate of police abuse.
The 1994 law included $30.2 billion to bolster cities’ law enforcement rosters and build dozens of new prisons. It also created tougher penalties for drug offenders and expanded the number of crimes that could be punished by the federal death penalty.
In her speech Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton spoke of race and policing in the context of her own experience working for the Children’s Defense Fund.
“I saw repeatedly how our legal system can be and all too often is stacked against those who have the least power, who are the most vulnerable,†she said, adding that the crises in Baltimore and other American cities is a “symptom†of inequality, unemployment and poverty that afflicts so many black communities.
Mrs. Clinton called President Obama’s task force on policing a “good place to start,†but said she hoped the changes could go further, including getting military weapons off the streets and better linking police forces to communities.
“Inequalities that exist in our justice system undermine this shared vision for what America can and should be,†she said.
Of course, the debate over policy and police tactics has given way to coarser, and, at times, racially tinged, reactions. Donald Trump, who has relentlessly flirted with but never embarked on a Republican presidential run, declared that “our great African-American president hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.â€
In Baltimore, where fires still smoldered on Wednesday, presidential politics felt like a distant luxury, unneeded and unwanted to people like Sharon Norris, 58, who lives in West Baltimore.
“If politicians are using this as a way to say, ‘I’m there for you, I understand,’ it doesn’t matter to these folks,†Ms. Norris said of her neighbors. “It’s not going to move any votes.â€
“If Hillary Clinton came down here to speak to these folks, it wouldn’t matter,†she added. “It wouldn’t matter if Obama came. Not going to change their thoughts.â€
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