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Statements from Dennis Kucinich:
Crime
"Our nation's police should be fully capable of protecting neighborhoods from crime and drugs while respecting the rights of residents and communities. I support strengthening civilian review boards, greater community policing, and an end to the drug war that has poisoned relations between cops and neighborhoods in too many cities. I also support legislation introduced by my colleague Rep. John Conyers to deny federal funds to police departments that continue to practice racial profiling."
Gun Laws, Gun Rights & Violence
"There are few topics which divide America more than the issues associated with firearms. For the vast majority of Americans who own firearms, they are a form of recreation in the character of hunting and/or target shooting. For many, they are a method for safety and protection in a society characterized by violence. But all too frequently, they are used for violence.
I have friends who both hunt and shoot. These are good people, they are not criminals, and they lock up their guns when not using them. I support their right to their hobbies, and I support the right to bear arms. I have also talked with widows and children left fatherless due to the improper use of firearms. As President, I will be committed to preventing such tragedies from happening. By helping to develop a society which does not look to violence as a method of solving problems, my proposed Department of Peace will play a key role in this. Conflict resolution and alternatives to violence will constitute major areas of responsibility within this new Department so that we can begin to lead by examples as well as by words.
My efforts to lead the fight against assault weapons have been highly recognized by The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. One year after the DC-area sniper attacks, I have co-signed a bill, H.R. 2038, to renew and strengthen the federal assault weapons ban. I was also the only presidential candidate to attend the recent Save Our Sons and Daughters (SOSD) event.
While some of my opponents in the Democratic primary believe that gun laws should reside at the state level, I respectfully disagree. In this mobile society, national control of guns just is necessary, just as it is with pollution. It is the right of Americans to keep and bear arms; however it is not the right of American felons to arm themselves.
In a time when homeland security is of utmost concern, it is perplexing why anyone would not wish to keep guns out of the hands of those who might do us harm. This is why I would support legislation to require background checks, identical to the background checks currently required for transfers by licensed gun dealers, for firearm transfers by unlicensed gun dealers at gun shows. Sensible laws to prevent guns from winding up in the wrong hands do not infringe on any constitutional rights.
I agree with the Brady Campaign that Congress should end the gun industry's immunity from product safety regulation and that irresponsible dealers who allow weapons to fall into the hands of criminals should be held accountable. President Bush campaigned on the promise to reauthorize the assault ban weapon law. However, in a calculated move to avoid signing the bill, the President has not spoken out publicly or forcefully to make the House Republicans under Rep. Tom DeLay bring the legislation out of committee and pass it. It is a shame that our current President is willing to expend limitless political capital to financially benefit his own campaign contributors with trillion dollar tax cuts but will spend nothing to keep assault weapons out of the hands of potential terrorists."
Death Penalty
"Like most Americans, I arrived at my position on the death penalty through a process that involved the application of morality and moral principles (derived from my religious and spiritual convictions), personal reflection, and a rational examination of facts and statistics. In the end, all of these considerations have led me to come down strongly on the side of opposing capital punishment.
Morally, I simply do not believe that we as human beings have the right to “play God” and take a human life—especially since our human judgments are fallible and often wrong. Indeed, since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, 700 men and women have been exonerated from Death Row, three-fourths of those exonerations taking place since 1992. That translates into one death row inmate being found innocent for every seven executed. Given this track record, I simply cannot support the death penalty since we know that it will, inescapably, be erroneously applied and innocent people will be put to death.
Second, all the evidence suggests that the death penalty is no deterrent to crime. Indeed, in those states that do have capital punishment, the average murder rate per 100,000 people is 8, while in states that have abolished the death penalty, the murder rate is just 4.4. In other words, states that do not have capital punishment actually have lower murder rates than states that do. I confidently believe that rather than decreasing murder, capital punishment actually has a brutalizing effect on society, contributing to an increase in murder.
Third, the evidence shows that the imposition of the death penalty is both racially and economically biased. African American defendants, for example, are far more likely to receive death sentences than others who committed similar crimes. To put that into perspective, 42% of inmates on death row today are African American, even though they comprise only 13% of the U.S. population; 180 African Americans have been executed in cases involving white victims, while 12 whites have been executed in cases with black victims. Of all the people on death row today, 75% of them are non-white. Moreover, a full 98% of all defendants sentenced to death have been people who could not afford their own attorneys. I simply cannot support a policy that is so unfairly and unevenly applied.
Fourth, America is one of the last nations in the world to still practice the death penalty. In fact, for each year since 1976, two additional countries have abolished capital punishment, and the overwhelming majority of nations around the world have now put an end to it in law or practice. Even in our own country, opposition to the death penalty has doubled since 1994. Recent polls say that 64% of Americans support a moratorium on all executions.
As President, I will seek an end to capital punishment by supporting the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003, which I recently introduced. At the same time, however, I believe that criminals who take innocent life or commit other horrific crimes should pay a severe penalty, and that we have a duty to protect our society from danger. For that reason, I favor life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as an acceptable moral alternative for the worst and most violent offenders in our society."
Drug War
"A safe, free and just America is undermined, not bolstered, by the costly and ineffective War on Drugs. While well-intentioned, this misguided policy -- which emphasizes criminalization over treatment -- has led to increased violent crime, misdirected resources of law enforcement and restricted Constitutional liberties.
Despite billions spent yearly on the drug war, addiction is up. Our country must rethink a policy that produces many casualties, but benefits only the prison-industrial complex. Non-violent drug offenders often receive Draconian sentences, tearing apart families.
Racial bias in the enforcement of drug laws is pervasive. According to a Human Rights Watch report based on FBI statistics, blacks were arrested on drug charges at nearly five times the rate of whites. Drug use is consistent across racial and socioeconomic lines -- yet in the state of New York, for example, 94 percent of incarcerated drug offenders are Latino or African-American, mostly from poor communities.
Countries in Europe and elsewhere are turning away from failed policies. They are treating addiction as a medical problem and are seeing significant reductions in crime and violence -- with fewer young people becoming involved with addictive drugs in the first place. In our country, due to misplaced priorities and resources, only one bed exists for every ten people who apply for drug treatment. Addiction is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system.
Most Americans believe that medical marijuana should be available to help relieve the suffering of seriously ill patients, and eight states have passed laws to allow it. But the Bush administration has harassed medical marijuana patients in an effort to assert federal authority. This is another aspect of the drug war that should be ended."
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