Our criminal-justice system is really violating our values as a people.
We as a nation have this land of the free, this nation that savors liberty and those ideals, really that we're lights onto the globe, now incarcerates more human beings than any other nation on the planet.
Like any system, it always needs refining, adjustments, and I think that's where we are now.
As far as policing is concerned, I think policing in America has done a very effective job over the last two decades, because crime is down.
Crime is down significantly throughout the country, with some exceptions.
And I attribute that to smarter policing, better policing, more effective policing, proactive policing.
Policing is in some sense a victim of its own success, in the following sense: And that is, that, crime rates have plummeted in the last thirty years; at the same time, public support, public trust, and public confidence in policing over this same time period has remained flat.
The public actually cares a great deal more about how they're treated by public authorities, than they care about the effectiveness of police.
My first experience getting hit with tear gas and rubber bullets was on August 12th, which really radicalized me in a way to want to pursue reform, not only just in Ferguson, but throughout St. Louis and the entire country, because, you know, the experience of getting tear-gassed and hit with rubber bullets was so unbelievable, I couldn't imagine something like that could happen in modern-day America.
If your intention is to, you know, jail massive numbers of people, if you believe that, you know, prison is an effective means of dealing with myriad social needs of the African American community, then it is pretty effective.
