Gary Johnson presidential campaign, 2016/Crime and justice
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Criminal justice reform, law enforcement training, use of force, and racial bias were key campaign issues in 2016.
When Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot and killed following a confrontation with a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014, protests against police brutality and racial bias touched off nationwide. Brown's death also propelled the Black Lives Matter movement from a hashtag on social media into a national protest movement.
Police shootings that occurred after Brown's shooting death and the protests they spurred received national attention and prompted national discussions of racism and policing. Videos posted online of the police shooting death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling during a confrontation with two police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 5, 2016, and of the aftermath of the police shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile outside St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 6, 2016, prompted widespread protests. At the conclusion of a protest in Dallas on July 7, 2016, 25-year-old military veteran Micah Xavier Johnson from Mesquite, Texas, opened fire on police officers. Five officers were killed and seven were wounded. The shooter told negotiators that he was upset about the police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota.[2][3]
Two deadly police shootings occurred just days before the first 2016 presidential debate, sparking more protests and refocusing the nation on the issues of race and police use of force. On September 16, 2016, a black man named Terence Crutcher who was unarmed was shot and killed by Officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Video of the encounter between Crutcher and police and the subsequent shooting was recorded by helicopter and dashboard cameras and made available online. At the request of the Tulsa police chief, the Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Crutcher's family called for peaceful protests and Shelby's arrest. A group protesting in front of Tulsa's City Hall on September 21, 2016, called for the creation of an African-American commission.[4][5]
On September 22, 2016, the Tulsa County district attorney charged Shelby with manslaughter in the first degree. Shelby turned herself in early on September 23, 2016. She was booked and released on $50,000 bond.[6]
On September 20, 2016, Officer Brentley Vinson arrived at a Charlotte, North Carolina, apartment complex to serve a warrant. In the parking lot, he fired on a different man, Keith Lamont Scott. Vinson said he believed that Scott was exiting his car armed with a handgun and that Scott ignored his commands. Scott's death and a dispute over whether he was armed prompted a curfew and spurred several days and nights of protests and property damage in Charlotte. More than a dozen police officers were injured in the protests and a protester was shot and later died. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) declared a state of emergency in Charlotte late on September 21, 2016.[7][8][9]
A study released in July 2016 and based on stop-and-frisk data from 2003 to 2013 showed that police officers treat blacks differently than whites during encounters. According to the study conducted by Harvard professor Ronald G. Fryer Jr., police officers are more likely to use non-lethal force, such as pushing, pointing a weapon, and pepper spray, during encounters with blacks. The study, however, found no racial bias in encounters when lethal force was used: police shootings. The imagery surrounding recent police shootings and an analysis conducted by ProPublica contradicted this. ProPublica analyzed federally collected police shooting data from 2010 to 2012 and concluded that young black males were 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police officers than young white males. Indeed, Fryer described his finding as “the most surprising result of [his] career.” Fryer also noted that his study is not a definitive analysis of police shootings and that additional data would perhaps create a fuller picture.[10][11]
Studies also showed that race is one factor that influences opinions about law enforcement. Other factors included age, income, education, and the level of crime in one’s neighborhood.[12]
During the first presidential debate, moderator Lester Holt asked Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump about how to heal America's racial divide. Clinton acknowledged the police shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte before she said, "[W]e've got to do several things at the same time. We have to restore trust between communities and the police. We have to work to make sure that our police are using the best training, the best techniques, that they're well prepared to use force only when necessary. Everyone should be respected by the law, and everyone should respect the law." Trump responded by first saying, "Well, first of all, Secretary Clinton doesn't want to use a couple of words, and that's law and order. And we need law and order. If we don't have it, we're not going to have a country." He also called for taking guns away from criminals and implementing stop-and-frisk to reduce the crime rate.[13]
Police shooting deaths and assaults on police officers prompted both political debate and various calls for reform from the 2016 presidential candidates.
Read below what Gary Johnson and the 2016 Libertarian Platform said about crime and justice.
Johnson on crime and justice
- While participating in Fusion’s Libertarian Presidential Forum on August 17, 2016, Gary Johnson expressed opposition to hate crime laws. He said, “Look, I am scared to death regarding hate crime legislation. You’re talking about me throwing a rock through someone’s window. I should be prosecuted on throwing the rock, not my thoughts that motivated me throwing the rock through that window.”[14]
- In an interview with Politico on July 8, 2016, Gary Johnson said “the root” of the violence in Dallas was “the war on drugs.” He continued, “If you are [black and] arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon That’s the common thread. Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying. This is an escalation.”[15]
- In an interview with BuzzFeed on July 6, 2016, Johnson called the footage of the police shooting death of Alton Sterling “very disturbing.” He continued, “If there was no display of a gun, if he didn’t have it in his hand…if his hand wasn’t being suppressed, I don’t get it. I mean, that’s murder.” Johnson said police departments should model themselves after those in cities with the fewest number of shootings.[16]
- Johnson called the imposition of the death penalty "flawed public policy" in his 2012 book, Seven Principles of Good Government. He wrote, "When I was younger, I supported capital punishment. I changed my mind because I recognized that the risks and costs associated with the death penalty are too high. I understand the eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth mentality but, realistically public policy should have room for mistakes. Killing one innocent person who was wrongly accused is not worth executing 99 guilty people. DNA evidence and judicial appeals have shown many people are mistakenly convicted."[17]
- In September 1999, Johnson, an advocate of private prisons, opposed an independent review of private prison operations in New Mexico following several riots and fatalities at private facilities in the state. A spokeswoman from his office said he was "confident and satisfied" with an inquiry conducted by the Public Safety and Corrections Department.[18]
- Read what other 2016 presidential candidates said about crime and justice.
| The 2016 Libertarian Party Platform on crime and justice | ||||||
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Recent news
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Reason.com, "Gary Johnson To Announce He's Running for President Today," January 6, 2016
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "From Ferguson to Baton Rouge: Deaths of black men and women at the hands of police," July 12, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Dallas sniper attack: 5 officers killed, suspect identified," July 9, 2016
- ↑ Newson6.com, "Tulsa Protesters Call For Creation Of African American Commission," September 21, 2016
- ↑ BBC, "Tulsa shooting: Family of man killed by police call for protests," September 20, 2016
- ↑ ABC News, "Tulsa Police Officer Arrested on Manslaughter Charges, Released on $50,000 Bond," September 23, 2016
- ↑ NPR, "3rd Night Of Charlotte Protests Is Peaceful; Protester Shot Wednesday Dies," September 22, 2016
- ↑ BBC, "Charlotte police: Keith Scott was warned to drop gun," September 21, 2016
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "State of emergency declared in Charlotte as new protests erupt; at least 14 people injured, 1 seriously," September 22, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, “Surprising New Evidence Shows Bias in Police Use of Force but Not in Shootings,” July 11, 2016
- ↑ ProPublica, "Deadly Force, in Black and White," October 10, 2014
- ↑ National Institute of Justice, “Race, Trust and Police Legitimacy,” July 14, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "The first Trump-Clinton presidential debate transcript, annotated," September 26, 2016
- ↑ Fusion, "Gary Johnson defends his opposition to hate crime laws and support of private prisons," August 17, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Libertarian Johnson: Drug war 'root cause' of police shootings," July 8, 2016
- ↑ BuzzFeed, "Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson: Alton Sterling Shooting Appears To Be A Murder," July 6, 2016
- ↑ Johnson, Gary. (2012). Seven Principles of Good Government. Aberdeen: Silver Lake Publishing. (pages 70-71)
- ↑ Amarillo Globe-News, "Johnson opposes independent study of private prisons," September 3, 1999
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Libertarian Party, "The 2016 Libertarian Party Platform," accessed August 24, 2016
