'Moderate' Pete Buttigieg Says Its Time to End Incarceration For Any Form of Drug Possession

Watch as supposed moderate Pete Buttigieg says that its time to end incarceration for any form of drug possession in this country:

Do you agree or disagree with this concept?

Partial transcript:

TAPPER: I want to follow up on a question from the debate.

You were asked by Lindsey Davis about why the marijuana possession arrest rates for black residents of South Bend is more than 4 times higher than the arrest rates for white residents.

You admitted that your city was not immune to systemic racism. The question was, do you personally take responsibility, any responsibility for that racial disparity in marijuana arrests?

BUTTIGIEG: “Well, all of us are implicated in these problems and I take responsibility for everything good, bad, and indifferent that we did in our city.

I also take responsibility that arrest rates for black residents in my city on drug charges were lower than in the state and around the country.

But, look, that doesn’t get any of us off the hook.

Disparities are one of the reasons that I am calling not only for us to legalize marijuana but for us to end incarceration as a response to drug possession altogether.

Not only that, we have to look at it as we go through the years wherein current regulations has done so much more harm than the offense it was intended to deal with.

That means looking at expungements and looking to get back on their feet.

Something else we did proactively with measures like ban the box for hiring in the city of South Bend. We’ve got a long way to go.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned as mayor, it’s that this entire country needs to come to a reckoning about how the criminal legal system is barely worth the system.”

Pete Buttigieg

✔@PeteButtigieg

Incarceration should no longer be the response to drug possession. #DemDebate

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8:14 AM - Feb 8, 2020

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