Sen. Paul Holds Listening Session in Ferguson
Oct 10, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. - TODAY, Sen. Rand Paul visited Ferguson, Missouri to attend a listening session with local leaders in the wake of the civil unrest over the past two months. The NAACP, the Urban League and several local business and church leaders participated in the event. The discussion centered around Sen. Paul's belief that the underlying problem in Ferguson-and many other troubled areas of our country-is a broken criminal justice system that unfairly targets minorities.
"I came to Ferguson today to listen to leaders in the community and to learn more about how we can fix the problems of criminal injustice together," Sen. Paul said.
"Senator Paul's decision to meet with the St. Louis county NAACP and local leadership in Ferguson speaks volumes about the NAACP's strength and influence in the civil rights community. Local leadership was encouraged by his decision to call a meeting with us to have a round table discussion and discuss common sense solutions. We were honored to have an informative discussion about the Senator regarding ways that he can help to assist our civil rights agenda in Washington and help to end police militarization," said John Gaskin III, spokesman for St. Louis County NAACP
Senator Paul has previously noted that anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. He has often noted that prisons are full of men and women of color who are serving inappropriately long and harsh sentences for non-violent, youthful mistakes.
"Given the over-militarization of our law enforcement and the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for minority communities not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them, " noted Senior Advisor, Doug Stafford. "Senator Paul will continue to work to fix the broken system and in the meantime, let us continue to pray for the people of Ferguson, citizens, police and officials alike."
Senator Paul has introduced six pieces of federal legislation that reforms the federal criminal justice system and addresses the underlying economic reasons for high crime areas:
Justice Safety Valve Act - S.619 - The bill introduced on March 20, 2013, and cosponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) would allow a federal judge to depart from mandatory minimum sentences under certain circumstances.
Economic Freedom Zones Act - S.1852 - The bill, introduced on December 18, 2013, would provide for the establishment of free market enterprise zones in economically distressed areas.
Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act - S.2550 - The bill, introduced on June 26, 2014, and cosponsored by Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would restore the voting rights for every non-violent offender in federal elections upon release.
REDEEM Act - S.2567 - The bill, introduced on July 8, 2014, and cosponsored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) would create a judicial process for adults to seal non-violent records on the federal level and an automatic process to expunge records for non-violent juveniles.
FAIR Act - S.2644 --- The bill, introduced on July 23, 2014, raised the standard for the federal government to seize property in criminal investigations to raise the standard to clear and convincing evidence as a means to protect individuals found not guilty of crime.
RESET Act - S.2657 - The bill, introduced on July 24, 2014, would reclassify simple possession drug crimes of small amounts as misdemeanors from felonies and eliminates the distinction between crack and powder cocaine for sentencing purposes because of the unfair outcomes of the distinction.
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