The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/elections-2020/)
During Thursday’s Democratic debate, the presidential candidate renewed his call for a buyback of military-style assault weapons. That message was met with what O’Rourke called a “death threat” from one Texas lawmaker, who told O’Rourke, “My AR is ready for you.”
Sen. Harris didn’t challenge a moderator’s contention at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate that her new criminal justice reform proposal contradicts some of her past positions while she was California Attorney General. But she said her initiatives on police bias training and drug treatment served as a “national model.”
Although a Washington Post-ABC News poll found a continued partisan divide on more far-reaching gun-control proposals, public opinion is firmly behind Democrats’ push for action as Congress returns to Washington.
In advance of Thursday’s Democratic candidates’ debate, the former California Attorney General issued a proposal that also includes ending federal mandatory minimum sentences, and phasing out for-profit prisons and cash bail.
Undeterred by lackluster public support for impeachment, Democratic lawmakers have a robust four-month plan for hearings and court arguments that they hope will provide the evidence they need to credibly portray President Donald Trump as corrupt and abusing his power.
Led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Civil Rights Corps, the groups urge candidates in the 2020 elections to support a “unified vision for transforming our criminal-legal system into one that respects the humanity, dignity, and rights of all people.”
Democratic presidential candidates’ proposals are part of “a conversation that is unrecognizable from 10 years ago — even five years ago — when these kinds of proposals wouldn’t have been floated in back rooms, let alone in public,” said Adam Gelb of the Council on Criminal Justice.
Releasing her version of a justice reform plan, Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed cuts in mandatory minimums, policing reforms and an end to money bail. She also called for more investment in mental health and addiction treatment to prevent crises that can lead to crime.
The Vermont senator, campaigning in South Carolina, unveiled a criminal justice plan that also included ridding the criminal justice system of “institutional racism and corporate profiteering.”
Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says she would repeal the controversial law but she didn’t comment on the law’s inclusion of popular community anticrime programs, an expired assault weapon ban and the Violence Against Women Act.