I don't like Biden but get your facts right. The crack-cocaine disparity was passed in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse law that came in the wake of Len Bias's death. It passed with a 97-2 vote in the Senate and a 392-16 vote in the House, damn near unanimous. It was signed by Reagan, a Republican, with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus (Charles Rangell even stood beside Reagan as he signed it). And Biden didn't write the law.
Condemning one politician for a law he didn't write that was passed unanimously some 35 years ago with the support of Black politicians is weird shyt. Especially when the other candidate is an open White Supremacist who drops all investigative actions against cops, encourages them to abuse suspects, and goads his supporters into seeing everything as a race war.
Broah you were doing o.k. until you got to that point. Biden actually did write the 1986 Anti Drug Abuse Act. So that means that your facts are wrong:
Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained
Biden was a major Democratic leader in spearheading America’s war on drugs during the 1980s and ’90s.
By
German Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez@vox.com Updated Jul 31, 2019, 10:24pm EDT
Biden didn’t just support the war on drugs. He authored large chunks of it.
During the 1980s and ’90s, America was in the middle of a crack epidemic and a huge crime wave. In response to this, Republicans and Democrats competed to look “tough on crime” — enacting incredibly punitive policies at all levels of government that focused, in large part, on imprisoning as many people as possible. On the Republican side, these efforts were led by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. But on the Democratic side, Biden, as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was a major leader in these efforts.
He clashed with Bush throughout the late 1980s and early ’90s about crime and drugs — Bush would put out a proposal and Biden would try to go further. During a debate over a
bill in 1991 (that would eventually become the 1994 crime law), Biden
argued his plan was “much tougher than the president’s” and “provides for more penalties for death for more offenses than the [president’s] bill.” In response to Republican criticisms that his bill protected criminals, Biden
claimed that “we do everything but hang people for jaywalking.”
In between the political squabbles, though, Biden really did help enact some very punitive legislation. Here are some examples from his record, drawn partly from
Jamelle Bouie’s previous rundown at Slate:
- Comprehensive Control Act: This 1984 law, spearheaded by Biden and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), expanded federal drug trafficking penalties and civil asset forfeiture, which allows police to seize and absorb someone’s property — whether cash, cars, guns, or something else — without proving the person is guilty of a crime.
- Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: This law, sponsored and partly written by Biden, ratcheted up penalties for drug crimes. It also created a big sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine; even though the drugs are pharmacologically similar, the law made it so someone would need to possess 100 times the amount of powder cocaine to be eligible for the same mandatory minimum sentence for crack. Since crack is more commonly used by black Americans, this sentencing disparity helped fuel big racial disparities in incarceration.
- Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988: This law, co-sponsored by Biden, strengthened prison sentences for drug possession, enhanced penalties for transporting drugs, and established the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates and leads federal anti-drug efforts.
- Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act: This 1994 law, partly written by Biden, imposed tougher sentences and increased funding for prisons, contributing to the growth of the US prison population from the 1990s through the 2000s — a trend that’s only begun to reverse in the past few years. It also included other measures, such as the Violence Against Women Act that helped crack down on domestic violence and rape, a 10-year ban on assault weapons, funding for firearm background checks, and grant programs for local and state police.
In short, Biden helped write and pass two of the most important pieces of federal legislation in the federal war on drugs — the 1986 and 1988 laws — and, in particular, helped create the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine. And he was at least partly behind other laws that perpetuated mass incarceration and increased police powers. (A caveat: The great majority of incarceration
happens at local and state levels, where federal law doesn’t apply.)
Joe Biden didn’t just support the war on drugs. He wrote much of the legislation behind it.