CNN: Secretary Clinton…a lot of folks in the black community blame the 1994 Crime Bill – a bill YOU supported – for locking up a generation of black men. Given what’s happened since 1994, WHY SHOULD BLACK PEOPLE TRUST YOU to get it right this time?

HILLARY: “Well, Don, let me say this: Senator Sanders voted for that bill. We both supported it…. Senator Sanders voted for it as well, are you gonna ask him the same question?

BERNIE: “…There are bills in Congress that have …good stuff and bad stuff in the same bill…In that bill, there were some good provisions. I have been a fierce fighter against domestic violence against ever since I was Mayor of Burlington. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT has protected millions of women in this country. IT WAS IN THAT BILL. The BAN ON ASSAULT WEAPONS, that’s what I have fought for my whole life. It was in that bill…”

BERNIE SANDERS FROM 1994: “A society which neglects, which oppresses, and which disdains a very significant part of its population; Which leaves them hungry, impoverished, unemployed, uneducated, and utterly without hope, will, through cause and effect, create a population which is bitter, which is angry, which is violent, and a society which is crime-ridden. And that is the case in America, and it is the case in other countries throughout the world.

Mr Chairman, how do we talk about the very serious crime problem in America without mentioning, WITHOUT MENTIONING, that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the Industrialized World by far, with 22% of our children in poverty and FIVE MILLION KIDS HUNGRY TODAY! Do you think MAYBE that might have some relationship to crime? How do we talk about crime, when this Congress is prepared THIS YEAR to spend 11 times more for the military than for education.

When 21% of our kids drop out of High School; when a recent study told us that twice as many young workers now earn poverty wages as 10 years ago; when the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider; and when the rate of poverty continues to grow. DO YOU THINK MAYBE THAT MIGHT HAVE SOME RELATIONSHIP TO CRIME?

Mr Chairman it is my firm belief, that clearly there are people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them.

But it is also my view that through the neglect of our government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, We Are Dooming Today Tens Of Millions Of Young People To A Future Of Bitterness, Misery, Hopelessness, Drugs, Crime, And Violence. And, Mr. Speaker, All The Jails In The World, And We Already Imprison More People, Per Capita, Than Any Other Country, And All The Executions In The World, Will Not Make That Situation Right.

We Can Either Educate Or Electrocute.

We Can Create Meaningful Jobs, Rebuilding Our Society, Or We Can Build More Jails.

Mr. Speaker, Let Us Create A Society Of Hope And Compassion, Not One Of Hate And Vengeance.