In fact, the ban contributed to a dramatic decrease in violent crime in the 1990s. Many of us remember the dire "juvenile superpredator" predictions that were in vogue before that reduction took place. In 1996, William Bennett and John Walters had written that America was a "ticking crime bomb," faced with the "youngest, biggest, and baddest generation" of juvenile offenders that our country had ever known. Fortunately, these predictions were wrong. From 1993 to 2001, arrest rates for violent juvenile crime declined by more than two-thirds.
On the anti-gang bill:
Many of us remember the dire "juvenile superpredator" predictions that were
common before that reduction took place. In 1996, William Bennett and John Walters wrote that America was a "ticking crime bomb" faced
with the "youngest, biggest, and baddest generation" of juvenile offenders that our country had ever known. Fortunately, these
predictions were wrong. From 1993 to 2001, arrest rates for violent juvenile crime fell by more than two-thirds. We're still reaping the
benefits of this lower crime rate today.
Bush aide John J. DiIulio Jr later came to regret being responsible for the theory:
From his perch as the director of the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which he believes will help uplift many needy people but particularly the most troubled teenagers, John J. DiIulio Jr. conceded today that he wished he had never become the 1990's intellectual pillar for putting violent juveniles in prison and condemning them as "superpredator".
DeIulio testified before Congress on his absurd theory.
Only 2 Democratic Senators voted against the 1994 Crime Bill: Russ Feingold (WI)and Paul Simon (IL). Only 2 Republican Senators voted against the bill. Bernie Sanders voted for it -- twice. (He voted for the House-Senate Conference Report on August 21, 1994, and then again for the final bill.
The 1994 crime bill was a disaster. The architect was Joe Biden. The bill that passed was essentially a rewrite of his S. 1607, the text of which was inserted into a House bill, H.R. 3355. H.R. 3355 passed and became law.
There's never been any stopping Joe Biden, our country's one-man crime band. He is responsible for most of the horrible crime legislation in this country over the past 25 years.
(Biden's bill S. 1607 was actually a rewrite of his earlier version, S.618 - Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. There was also a 1993 version.)
What to keep in mind: The Republican version of a crime bill in 1995 was even worse. It was called the "Take Back Our Streets Act" which was part of Newt Gingrich's Contract on America (he called it "Contract With America.")
Criminal defense lawyers lobbied long and hard against Gingrich's bill, with success. We used to think of it as the "Korematsu, McCarthy, and Star Chamber Renewal Act."
As for Bernie Sanders, in 1995, the year after he voted for the 1994 Crime bill, he introduced something called The Progressive Promise (text version here). It was a list of ten bills, meant to counter Gingrich's Contract on America, one of which pertained to crime. Rather than disavow the 1994 crime bill he voted for, Sanders reaffirmed support for it when describing it to Congress:
The second bill in the Progressive Promise is The Equal Justice Before the Law Act, which is an anticrime package that retains key aspects of the anticrime legislation enacted in 1994 to prevent crime as well as punish that which happens; to crack down on white-collar crime -- for example, S bailout, defrauding Federal Government on procurement, criminal penalties for willful violation of child labor laws by employers that result in serious bodily injury or death of minors in the workplace, eliminate deductibility of legal expenses when a company is accused of a crime -- and on drug trafficking and abuse. (my emphasis.)
The Dems were bad in those years, not just on crime but on wiretapping and civil liberties.
But don't kid yourselves that Republicans have changed or are any better. They don't care about the rights of the accused or convicted, only the amount of money it costs to imprison them.
As for Bennett and Walters, they remain fixated on their "bring back the war on drugs" platform. Thankfully, neither Hillary nor Sanders are likely to listen to them. I can't say the same for Trump, Cruz or Rubio.
