Obama Soft On Crime?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted Monday, March 24, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Law and Order: Obama doesn't talk much about his views on crime and punishment — at least not in front of general audiences — and for good reason.

While his Web site says he's "a strong proponent of tougher measures to fight crime," his record tells a different story.

As an Illinois state senator, for example, he acted more as a friend to criminals than to cops, legislating among other things:

• Curbs on what he called a "broken" death penalty system.
• A measure to expunge some criminal records and give job grants to ex-cons.
• Tougher handgun controls.
• A vote against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang.
• Opposition to a bill requiring juveniles to be prosecuted as adults for firing a gun at or near a school.

At the federal level, Obama would:

• Repeal "unfair" mandatory sentences for crack convictions.
• Provide drug counseling instead of jail time for some abusers.
• Rethink criminal penalties for pot.
• Ban profiling by federal law enforcement, even if it helps catch violent criminals including terrorists.
• Strengthen hate-crime laws and beef up civil rights enforcement against police chiefs who profile.
• Provide job training, drug rehab and counseling for ex-cons.
• "Re-enfranchise" felons denied the right to vote.

In addition, Obama, who once vowed to repeal the Patriot Act, still talks about reforming it. He also once proposed banning executions of inmates, arguing he was against capital punishment.
It's not clear where Obama stands on the issue now, but he does think death row and the entire U.S. penal system are stacked against blacks. While so far only alluding to racism as the culprit, his mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright minces no words in blaming "racist white America."

"The brothers are in prison" largely because of their skin color, he claims.

And a racist white majority put them there, he believes, by "structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons."

In Wright's conspiracy, personal responsibility plays no role. This is the same adviser who told Obama that there are "more black men in prison than in college"—a statement that Obama parroted until he was told that it was false.

Unfortunately, Obama listens to his preacher and buys into his conspiracy theories. "In our criminal justice system, African-Americans and whites are arrested at very different rates," Obama recently complained. "It has to do with how we pursue racial justice."

He vows to pursue it with gusto, unleashing civil rights cops on police chiefs and district attorneys who dare to arrest and prosecute criminals who happen to be of color.

In last Tuesday's speech explaining his ties to Wright, he reiterated his desire to do more to enforce civil rights laws.

He cites the Jena Six case as an example of racial injustice. But one of the thugs he defends as a victim of Louisiana racism recently was arrested again for assault. The 6-6 Bryant Purvis allegedly choked and slammed a classmate's head on a table after helping five other blacks beat a white student within an inch of his life.

Would Obama go soft on such brutal crime in the name of racial equality? No justice, no peace? Obama for now speaks only in code, saying he'll fix "a criminal justice system that's broken." But how exactly is it broken? And who would he appoint to help fix it?

Who will he pick as his attorney general? His top civil rights cop? Is his pal Rep. John Conyers on the short list? Rep. Keith Ellison?

What about federal judges? Will they be frustrated social workers who go easy on criminals to "reintegrate" them into society?

More important, what kind of justices does Obama have in mind to replace aging veterans on the high court, which decides the constitutionality of capital punishment cases?

We shudder to think.

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Why hasn't Obama's soft on crime record been brought forward before the primary voting was started to tell voters about his on the record on crime? He talks a good talk using a teleprompter but his record is one of being soft of criminals and his statements lean toward allowing criminals to go free because of color. If you do the crime, you should pay the time without regard to race.

This is another example of why Obama would be bad for America. My question would be who is going to run the Country -- Obama or Rev Wright? Seems he thinks more of Wright's ideas then anyone else over the years. Obama looks to be only representing Illinois blacks not the rest of the State which brings up the question would he only represent blacks if elected President?

Voters need to take a look at his voting record and seriously listen to what he is saying. We have already discovered that his campaign motto "Change" he has used since the 1980's when President Reagan was President. Looks to me like he is more talk and no action if over 20 years later he is using the same word -- "CHANGE!" Voters BEWARE of someone that recently came on the national scene with little experience to be President!

My bold and highlight!