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Rand Paul Campaign: He Wasn't Talking About Murder
Sen. Rand Paul raised a lot of eyebrows Tuesday when, in his speech announcing his presidential candidacy, he declared: "I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed."
Critics — and not just critics — immediately wondered: Don't lots of laws result in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color? Should they all be repealed? Laws against murder, robbery, and assault, to name just a few examples, would fit that description. In each of those cases, people of color are imprisoned more, in proportion to their part of the population, than whites.
"Rand Paul accidentally proposed legalizing murder," read the headline in the liberal website Vox. "Rand Paul remains an embarrassment," read the headline in the conservative PowerLine.
The Paul campaign says the senator's words were misunderstood. "Sen. Paul was referring to nonviolent crimes," campaign spokeswoman Eleanor May told me via email, adding that the passage in question was "a reference to his criminal justice reforms." ..
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