Cory Booker Becomes Mayor of Newark
In is 2017 book United, Cory Booker recounts what he found when he became mayor of Newark in 2006. Newark was in the midst of a violent crime wave that rivaled the on that peaked just before the 1994 crime bill was passed.
The murder rate was rising. In every community meeting I went to, every neighborhood I visited, the plea was for more public safety, usually articulated as a call for more police presence. People wanted walking patrols, dedicated officers assigned to their neighborhoods, a police substation, or simply increased police visibility.
This is exactly what was happening in 1993 and 1994 as the crime bill was being debated. The most popular provision across the board was the $20 billion for 100,000 for “community policing” — what Booker refers to a “dedicated officers assigned to their neighborhoods.”
House Negotiations over the Crime Bill
Baltimore Sun, August 18, 1994
Republican set the limit on crime-prevention programs
Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the House GOP whip, said the price for picking up Republican votes could be as high as $6 billion in cuts from crime-prevention programs, many of which help black communities.
Objection #1 of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
For weeks, the entire caucus had stalled final negotiations on the crime bill because Mr. Clinton could not win Senateagreement on a provision aimed at preventing racial bias in the use of the death penalty.
The Dems making the bill conservative — not Biden
Forty-eight other Democrats voted against Mr. Clinton and the party leadership to block consideration of the crime bill. Most are conservatives from rural areas who regularly buck the president.
CBC put their own stamp on the bill
[Chairman] Mr. Mfume said support for the crime bill by the Black Caucus isn’t just a favor for Mr. Clinton. “We have put our stamp on this bill,” he said, referring to crime-prevention programs, the assault weapons ban and limits on use of “three-time loser” life sentences for repeat offenders.
1994 Crime Bill $ Allocations
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The most popular allocations with Democrats and the Black community were (1) community policing — “cops on the beat,” and (2) crime prevention, for a total of $15.9 billion.
… Omit ‘Racial Justice’ Measure
By RONALD BROWNSTEIN, LA Times
JULY 15, 1994 | 12 AM
President Clinton, in a high-risk move that could clear the way for final passage of the crime bill, has decided to seek removal of the controversial “racial justice” provision.
A group of 10 black big-city mayors–including [the mayors of] Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Denver–wrote to Mfume, urging the Black Caucus to support the crime bill even without the racial justice provision.
The mayors indicated support for the provision. But they wrote that they did not believe that it “should bring down the entire bill. . . . We cannot afford to lose the opportunities this bill provides to the people of our cities.”
Ripped Apart
