Sanders: ‘We Need To Make Wage a Major Effort ... To End Institutional Racism’

BERNIE SANDERS: "Well, this whole issue concerns me. And I agree with much of what the secretary and the governor have said. But let’s be clear. Today in America we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth. 2.2 million people. Predominantly African-American and Hispanic. We are spending $80 billion a year locking up our fellow Americans. I think, and this is not easy, but I think we need to make wage a major effort, to come together as a country and end institutional racism. We need major, major reforms of a very broken criminal justice system. Now, what does that mean? Well, for a start it means that police officers should not be shooting unarmed people, predominantly African-Americans. [ Applause ] It means that we have to rethink the so-called war on drugs which has destroyed the lives of millions of people, which is why I have taken marijuana out of the controlled substance act. So that it will not be a federal crime. That is why we need to make —[ applause ] That is why we need to make police — and I speak as a former mayor. I was a mayor for eight years, worked very closely with a great police department. And what we did is try to move that department toward community policing so that the police officers become part of the community and not as we see in some cities an oppressive force. We need to make police departments look like the communities they serve in terms of diversity. We need to end minimal sentencing. We need basically to pledge that we’re going to invest in this country in jobs and education, not more jails and incarceration."