Unlike much of the Left, the World Socialist Party of the United State (WSPUS) has opposed the traditional radical opposition to the incumbent
presidents (e.g., anti-Nixon, anti-Reagan, anti-Bushes or anti-Clinton) arguing
that the enemy of the working class is the entire exploitative social system
based on ownership of the means of the production, not the presidents elected
to run that system efficiently, as such opposition fosters the illusion of
"better presidents" rather than an understanding of, and opposition
to, the entire economic system based on an owning minority employing a
non-owning majority to produce its profits. Nevertheless it has not shied away
from exposing their lies and hypocrisy. In closing down a BlackLivesMatter heckler, the former president
and now cheer-leader for his wife, Hilary, Bill Clinton tried the politicians
bluff …cite favourable statistics. But the Guardian has taken issue with the
veracity of some of Clinton’s claims.
‘Because of that bill, we had a 25-year low in crime’
The law under scrutiny is the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994, which made sweeping changes in the US justice system,
including tougher sentences and money for police officers and prisons.
Clinton is right that in 1995 crime rates fell, though he
can’t take all the credit for a decline in crime that began before he took office.
In 1995, the crime rate (defined as the total number of property and violent
crimes per 100,000 people) fell from 5,374 to 5,275, its lowest level in 10 years – not 25, as
Clinton claimed on Thursday. Statistics and studies also show that crime had
been falling since 1991, long before his crime bill was passed. Clinton’s claim
that crime rates were immediately and dramatically affected by the law lacks
support.
‘A 33-year low in the murder rate’
Clinton also credited the bill with lowering murder rates,
specifically. Here again, there’s a similar obfuscation of statistics. In 1995,
the murder rate was 8.2 per 100,000 US inhabitants, the lowest level since 1985
and not the 33-year low Clinton claimed.
These statistics vary little once you account for race. In
1995, 31.2 out of every 100,000 black Americans was a homicide victim – the
lowest level since 1987 but still almost seven times higher than the white
victimization rate. Those who are keen to focus on the issue of crime committed
by African Americans against other African Americans should keep in mind that
victims and offenders usually know each other, making intra-racial violent
crime a general trend in the US. Black-on-black crime accounts for a similar
percentage of all homicides as white-on-white crime.
‘The largest drop in African American poverty in history’
In 1996, Bill Clinton signed into law a contested welfare
reform bill. Much like Clinton’s other claims on Thursday, his defense of it
has some support. During Clinton’s presidency (1993-2001), black poverty rates
did fall to historic lows. By 2000, the percentage of black Americans living in
poverty had fallen to 22.5%, the lowest level since 1974. However, like the
crime statistics mentioned above, the downward trend began in 1991, and the
effect of the law was not so clear cut as to work for the general good of all
African Americans. Single mothers benefited from the reform bill, for instance,
but the number of Americans living in extreme poverty – a minority within the
group living in poverty – more than doubled from 1996 to 2013.
‘Record increases in income and record low unemployment’
Median income rose for all Americans, including black
Americans, after the introduction of the 1996 welfare reforms. However,
household incomes had already been on an upward trajectory since 1991.
But if the law Clinton signed don’t deserve all the credit
for lowering crime rates and poverty, it also doesn’t deserve sole
responsibility for mass incarceration – that too was on an upward trend before
the 1994 crime bill was passed. America’s black incarceration rate had been
steadily climbing since 1980, as successive presidents and Congresses passed
laws related to the “war on drugs”. Clinton himself has recognized that his
legislation made an existing problem worse, in comments made after the rally
disruption, as well as last year. In a foreword to a book on mass incarceration
published a year ago, he wrote “we have overshot the mark”, and speaking at an
NAACP convention last July, the former president conceded: “We had a lot of
people who were locked up, who were minor actors, for way too long.” Mass
incarceration continues to disproportionately affect black Americans. For every
100 black women who are not in jail, there are only 83 black men. A statistic
which led the New York Times to calculate last year that there are 1.5 million
“missing” black men in America.
There was indeed broad support for what Clinton did which
was a reaction to the endless parade of media crime stories at the time and for
the years previous. Bernie Sanders voted for the 1994 Tough on Crime Bill as
well.
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