Clinton committed to combating “systemic racism” if elected President, in response to a race-related question during Saturday’s ABC-hosted Democratic debate.
“We have systemic racism and injustice and inequities in our country and in particular, in our justice system that must be addressed and must be ended,” Clinton said, when asked about race in America.
Moderator David Muir asked Clinton about bridging the divide between what he described as a “real concern” of the Black Lives Matter movement and the “Ferguson Effect” of police officers excessively restraining themselves for fear of having their careers unjustifiably destroyed by racial innuendo.
“We have systemic racism and injustice and inequities in our country…”
Hillary Clinton
Asked the same question, Martin O’Malley said, “There is no issue in American public policy that I have worked on more day in and day out than this painful issue of policing, of law enforcement, criminal justice and race in America.”
Previously Baltimore’s Mayor, O’Malley praised himself for overseeing what he said was “the biggest reduction in crime” any “major city” had seen during an unspecified ten-year period. According to Forbes in 2012, Baltimore ranked seventh among the “Most Dangerous U.S. Cities” city in terms of prevalence of violent crime.
“I think we need to make wage a major effort, to come together as a country and end institutional racism. We need major, major reforms of a very broken criminal justice system,” Senator Bernie Sanders said, in full agreement that such prevalent racism exists in America that disadvantages blacks.
Sanders continued by endorsing the left-wing Black Lives Matter movement’s narrative, “Well, for a start it means that police officers should not be shooting unarmed people, predominantly African-Americans.”
Calling for racial and ethnic hiring quotas for law enforcement, Sanders said, “We need to make police departments look like the communities they serve in terms of diversity.” He recommended an undefined “community policing”, in which police officers wouldn’t be seen as an “oppressive force.”
Formerly the mayor of Burlington, the city was just under 90% white in 2011. USA fretted over the high percentage of whites in Vermont, praising its declining share of the total state population in 2011. Also in 2011, ABC worried that Vermont and several other states were too white.
All three Democratic candidates were in consensus on the need for presidency to be used to combat what they described as widespread and enshrined racism in civil society and political institutions.