Clinton Makes Case for Black Vote
With the Democratic primary season upon us, political pundits have wondered whether Hillary Clinton will enjoy the same enthusiastic support from the African-American community in her presidential bid that President Barack Obama received. Others have wondered whether she actually deserves the same level of allegiance from African-American voters. Based upon her campaign thus far, there can be no doubt that the answer to both questions is a resounding “Yes.”
Hillary Clinton’s focus on racial issues in her presidential campaign began with an April 29th speech at Columbia University in New York City, where she spoke about recent police brutality incidents. Her wide-ranging discussion of the causes of racial unrest and her proposed solutions demonstrate a deep and thoughtful understanding of longstanding racial inequities both in the criminal justice system, and in the broader economic and political arenas throughout America.
Hillary opened by recognizing that while the vast majority of law enforcement officers perform their difficult jobs with respect for those they serve and in compliance with the law, something is seriously wrong in many of the current relationships between police and minority communities. She is absolutely right. Many American cities have had poor police community relations for decades. And with the recent discovery that a white Oklahoma City police officer raped 13 black women, while on duty, over the span of several years, minority perceptions of law enforcement are likely to get worse.
Such perceptions have much basis in fact. During the last two decades, the United States Department of Justice has conducted 67 investigations of civil rights violations by police departments. Of those 67 investigations, 24 departments across the U.S. were found to have serious violations requiring judicial oversight. The Department of Justice has intervened in 16 police departments found to have patterns of excessive or deadly force based on race. Over the last seven years, the Obama administration has intervened in four departments including Ferguson, Missouri, where black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a White officer and Baltimore, Maryland, where a young black man mysteriously died in police custody.
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