One of the main pillars of middle school principal Jamaal Bowman's congressional campaign is his call for "restorative justice" — sinking money into communities, rather than turning to incarceration.
Bowman, a Justice Democrat, has called to repeal the 1994 Crime Bill, a piece of legislation backed by his opponent, 16-term Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, because he says the 25-year-old bill has unfairly discriminated against people of color, resulting in the rise of mass incarceration in the United States. For Bowman, there are better methods to clean up his community.
In explaining restorative justice, he told Cheddar Monday "If someone does harm against a community, it's not about torturing them and throwing them in a cage. It's about understanding why that harm was committed in the first place and giving them the opportunity to right the wrong of the harm."
In the 2020 presidential race, controversy surrounding the Crime Bill has been a point of contention for the former Vice President Joe Biden. While Biden was a frontrunner out of the gate, he spent the early days of his campaign answering questions as to why he signed on to the "tough on crime" law that has been criticized for the minimum mandatory sentences that led to more black men being locked up.
In the months since, several candidates have called for its repeal, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who wrote a Medium post outlining her criminal justice policy: "It's not equal justice when a kid with an ounce of pot can get thrown in jail, while a bank executive who launders money for a drug cartel can get a bonus. It's long past time for us to reform our system."
Criminal justice reform has been identified as a key issue among black voters in recent years. Pollster Celinda Lake wrote in a piece for The Marshall Project, "by a two-to-one margin, voters believed that our country relies too much on incarcerating people (63 percent to 31 percent who disagreed), including majorities of every subgroup in the data who share this belief."
Now Bowman is championing criminal justice reform as one of his fundamental policies in the race for New York's 16th Congressional District: "If we provided people with the resources and opportunities within their neighborhoods, within their communities, within the district, they wouldn't commit crime in the first place."
"It's easy to give trillion dollar tax cuts to Wall Street. It's easy to invest trillions in the Pentagon," Bowman added. "When are we going to start investing trillions in our children, in community centers, in museums, and in opportunities for them to thrive?"
Although Bowman clarified that he is not calling for the all-out disarmament of all police officers, he did call for a re-alignment of gun control, adding: "We need to have independent investigators, and we need to grow our non-emergency police force so when we respond to someone with a mental health challenge, or a domestic challenge, we respond in a nonviolent way."
Bowman has won the backing of prominent political leaders like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a Justice Democrat-backed candidate herself.
In an early poll conducted by progressive think tank Data for Progress in September, 29 percent of Democrats in the district said they would vote for Engel, whereas Bowman grasped the support of 10 percent. However, a whopping 60 percent still said they were not sure.
The U.S. is back in negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran, years after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had been meant to curtail the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear ambitions. Former State Department senior advisor to the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, Christian Whiton, joined Cheddar News Wrap to discuss. “It appears to be very similar to the original JCPOA, which does put some constraints on Iran's nuclear program, but also has sunset provisions, including some that in the original plan were expected to take effect in 2025," he said. "And so, if we just reenter that plan, really it just buys perhaps a few years of slowing down, stopping, whatever you want to say, Iran's nuclear program."
The U.S. has announced the first of what could be multiple levels of sanctions against Russia after Moscow recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent. This comes as Britain imposes sanctions on five Russian banks and two oligarchs, and Germany freezes the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Terrell Star, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, joins from Kyiv to discuss.
Growing tensions in Ukraine might soon be impacting consumers in the United States. With Russia on an invasion footing in the region, gas prices are predicted to go up 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the next coming weeks, according to Robert Sinclair, spokesperson for AAA. Sinclair joined Cheddar to break down what could happen even further. "We've been seeing prices go up, and there's been nothing that's happened to affect supplies," he said. "But it's something known as the fear tax where just the talk of something that might interfere with supplies leads to prices going up speculatively."
The end of 3G is upon us. On Tuesday, AT&T became the first major provider to disable its 3G services, and T-Mobile and Verizon plan to follow suit later this year. The shutdowns are expected to impact millions of vehicles that use 3G networks for updates, remote connection, and certain emergency and convenience features. Lance Ulanoff, the U.S. Editor-in-Chief of TechRadar, joined Cheddar's Closing Bell to discuss the ramifications of the changeover.
A new report shows nearly 240 former officials in Congress, the White House, and regulatory agencies have changed careers to work in the crypto industry.
President Biden unveiled new economic sanctions on Russia for what he called "the beginning of a Russian invasion". This came one day after Putin sent troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. Alex Ward, national security reporter for POLITICO, explains what these sanctions might do to the global economy.
U.S. stocks ended today's session sharply lower on the heels of rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Melissa Brown, Managing Director of Applied Research at Qontigo, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the U.S. will begin to impose sanctions on Russia, calling recent troop movement into Ukraine an 'invasion.' Biden and other government officials including from the State Department have begun to classify the Russian troop movement as an invasion after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to two independent Ukrainian areas in an alleged "peacekeeping" mission — which the West considers an act of aggression. Biden said Russia will continue to pay 'an even steeper price' if it continues sending troops into Ukraine. What happens next? Will Putin find a way around these sanctions? Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins Closing Bell to discuss Biden's remarks, how the West will protect Ukraine since it doesn't belong to NATO, and more.
