Hillary Clinton: Time to Grapple with Some Hard Truths About Race, Justice in America

Thursday in Boston at the Conference for Women, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the civil unrest surrounding the deaths at the hand of law enforcement officers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Clinton said, “I want to say a few words about the pain and frustration that many Americans are feeling about our criminal justice system. I am very pleased that the department of justice will be investigating what happened in Ferguson or Staten Island. Those families and those communities and our country deserve a full and fair accounting as well as whatever substantive reforms are necessary to ensure quality, justice and respect for every citizen. Each of us has to grapple with some hard truths about race and justice in America because despite all of the progress we’ve made together, African-Americans, most particularly African-American men, are still more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms.” 

“The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. Now, that is not because americans are more violent or criminal than others around the world,” she continued. “In fact, that is far from the facts. It is because we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance. I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come together as a nation to find our balance again.”

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