SHE WILL SPEAK – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton will speak today at Columbia University, which happens to be Obama's alma mater, at least we think.  The Queen will speak on the subject of criminal justice.  Judging from the advance stories, just imagine you're back in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson is president, Stokely Carmichael is on the march in black America, and Watts is rioting.  And, oh yes, one in eight New York City residents is on welfare.  From Bloomberg:   

Hillary Clinton will call Wednesday for sweeping criminal justice reform and an end to the "era of mass incarceration," delivering a message that has even more currency after days of rioting in Baltimore.

"Mass incarceration"?  Where do we have that?  In fact, our willingness over the years actually to put criminals in prison has produced dramatically good results. 

Clinton's comments will come in the first policy speech of her campaign, at Columbia University in New York, where she will outline her vision for criminal justice reform, a campaign aide said.

The former secretary of state plans to call for a changed approach to punishment and prison, including making changes to probation practices, finding alternative punishments for low-level offenders, and increasing support for mental health and drug treatment.

Notice that there is no mention of culture, of fatherlessness, of left-wing social theories gone crazy.  As I wrote, welcome back to the sixties.

“We have to restore order and security.”

Clinton will say that she supports seeing every police department in the country obtain body cameras "to improve transparency and accountability in order to protect those on both sides of the lens."

She will also discuss the "hard truth and fundamental unfairness in our country" that African-American men are much more likely than others to be stopped and searched by police, and charged with crimes.

The sad and hard truth is that African-American men commit a disproportionately high number of crimes.  Police assigned to black communities will, by definition, stop and search more black men than any other group.  One can argue about the "root causes" of crime, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Clinton offered a preview of her speech on Tuesday night, telling New York donors who had given $2,700 each or raised at least $27,000 that "Baltimore is burning" and that the situation there "is heartbreaking."

"The tragic death of another young African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of peoples’ homes and small businesses. We have to restore order and security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system," she said, adding that she would say more Wednesday.

COMMENT:  This shows once again that modern liberalism isn't a series of political beliefs.  It's a religion.  No matter what the facts show, the party line just continues.  You either accept the faith, or are escorted out. 

There was a time when most African-American families were intact.  That is no longer the case.  Some eighty percent of the children living in Harlem don't know who their fathers are.  Unless this tragedy is addressed, nothing will work.

For more than a year, New York City has had a "progressive" mayor who is more critical of the police than of criminals.  Crime is already up.  But the left will never learn.

April 29, 2015