The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/policy-politics/)
The victories of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who won her bid for re-election, George Gascon in Los Angeles and Jose Garza in Austin, Tx., reflected slow but steady support for prosecutors bent on changing the “tough on crime” approach that has driven mass incarceration. But they still represent a small percentage of prosecutors.
Among Biden’s transition team, talks about changes at the Justice Department have focused on reinstituting a more robust civil rights division, pushing more vigorously on criminal justice reform, and opening a new division on Environmental and Climate Justice.
Alejandro Mayorkas, 60, was seen as the candidate who could best stabilize the department, which has spent much of the last four years in turmoil.
New York City recorded 2,245 murders in 1990. In 1991, riots broke out in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after a Hasidic Jewish man accidentally ran over two Black children. After riots lasted days, Dinkins said his legacy would be tied to Crown Heights.
As Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, police are unlikely to play a significant role in enforcing compliance with advisories warning against travel and limiting the number of people around the dinner table to curb the spread of COVID-19—if the results of a new survey on police enforcement of pandemic restrictions so far are any indication.
Prosecutorial races and referendum ballots around the nation demonstrated support for some reform trends, such as pot legalization, but also delivered some setbacks to those hoping for broader change, according to experts assembled by the Council on Criminal Justice think tank. Justice reform still has a “long way to go,” said former California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Rhetoric by progressive activists became an effective “weapon” used to swing suburban voters away from Democrats during the election, say analysts. Some worry that it will affect the upcoming senatorial runoff races in Georgia.
The proposed bill in the state legislature would allow motorists to escape criminal charges if they inadvertently injure or kill a protester if it can be ascertained they reasonably feared for their safety.
The percentage who says the justice system is not tough enough on criminals has dropped by half since 1992, Gallup finds.
Criminologist Richard Rosenfeld argues that the measure championed by President-elect Joe Biden “laid the foundation for today’s emphasis on evidence-based criminal justice policy, especially policing.”