Will you be Hillary's next superpredator?

[nashville_brook]

Will you be Hillary's next superpredator?
Brook Hines | @nashville_brook

http://thefloridasqueeze.com/2016/02/27/will-you-be-hillarys-next-superpredator/


We know now that the theory of the superpredator is utter bullshit. In the 90s the idea was pushed by John DiIulio, a professor at Princeton who fear-mongered that by 2010, there would be "an estimated 270,000 more young predators on the streets.” This, of course, never happened. His predictive failure was nonetheless a coup for conservative tacticians, and after helping the Clintons establish themselves as “tough on crime,” he was rewarded as the first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush.

It should be obvious that the Clintons cynically used the myth of the superpredator to exploit issues of race and crime, extract money for/from the private prison lobby, and steer political discourse to the right. It was a horribly destructive myth that claimed some children were “just born criminals.” It was used in combination with the “crack baby” myth to demonize the black community with the express intent of preemptively locking up kids. This was the subject of her now infamous campaign speech when she said that these children are superpredators, without conscience or empathy—who have to be "brought to heel."



Here’s what UC Law professor Franklin Zimring said of the superpredator myth in 1996: “The ideological needs of the moment seem to be for a youth crime wave set in the future so that government can shadowbox against it by getting tough on juvenile crime in advance. It's a "heads-I-win, tails-you-lose" situation for the crime wave alarmists. They were right if crime rates go up; their policies can also be said to succeed even if the crime wave never happens. There are more than a few parallels here with the domestic scare about communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s. If we find any communists hiding under our beds, the alarm was justified. If there are no communists under the bed, then the vigilance of citizens has saved the day.”

You might say it was it was tactic that Barry Goldwater would approve of, only African American juveniles were the communists of the 90s.



On Wednesday Clinton was confronted at a fundraiser by an activist, Ashley Williams, who unfurled a banner and asked for an apology for the policy and for the superpredator language. Hillary was caught flat-footed and angrily brushed the woman away. It was all caught on video. I don't need to re-post it here on DU, we've all seen it.

It took a day of the video and hashtag #WhichHillary trending on Twitter for Clinton to release a statement saying this was language she “wouldn’t use today.” Unfortunately, she wasn’t immediately able to articulate this position, and language shouldn’t be our primary concern. This discredited theory of crime created mass incarceration which decimated whole swaths of our country by race. I believe that deserves a more than, “I wouldn’t use that language today.” How about not adopting that policy, scapegoating that racial population, and carrying that water for the private prison lobby?

If Clinton would use the myth of the superpredator to build power for the administation on crime in the 90s, what do you suppose will be the next myth and the next maligned social group under a new Clinton White House? Could the threat of ISIS be used against us? In what capacity? Against which social groups? Muslims? Immigrants? Using what technologies?

Indeed, this moment would have gone down much differently had candidate Clinton used her position of privilege to respond with more compassion or care. But that didn't happen. Instead, she had that young black woman escorted out while intoning that she would “get back to the the issues.”

This sent the message that the concerns of African Americans are not her issues, nor those of the people in the room. Moreover, it suggested that the people in the room were still in the superpredator mindset—and the candidate wasn't going to deign to address her question. No how, no way. "Back to the issues."

[DirkGently]

1. "Tough on crime" was a conservative drumbeat

that part of the the disheartened Democratic Party once thought it had to embrace. Like welfare reform. And de-regulation. And wars for " regime change." This is how we got the Third Way crop of Dems that thought the only way to beat Republicans was to basically become them.

That has not gone well.

[nashville_brook]

6. it's a shame that POC are being used...again, meanwhile nothing is done about

killer cops. you don't hear HRC intoning against those who murdered Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald and so many more. That's not her issue. She doesn't say these names.

i guess that's being "tough on crime."

[ismnotwasm]

21. They lost Trayvon, Eric, Sandra, Jordan, Dontre. Now these mothers are with Hillary.

Clinton, the women all agreed, had been the only candidate to reach out to them. That fact was stressed again and again in the more than an hour they spent here, speaking to a small group of mostly black voters.

Geneva Reed-Veal — the mother of Sandra Bland, the Illinois woman found hanging in a Texas jail cell last year — described Clinton as the kind of person you can "take your shoes off and have a conversation with."

"You can not fake passion," Reed-Veal said. "You cannot fake concern."

While some of these women have campaigned on Clinton’s behalf prior to today’s roundtable, this is the first time the five have stood shoulder to shoulder in an effort to boost her campaign. Tomorrow, at a different church in Columbia, S.C., they’ll stand beside Clinton herself.

Referring to themselves repeatedly as the "mothers of the movement," the women interspersed stories of losing their children in high-profile acts of violence with their recollections of meeting Clinton, and their belief that she would be the best president for Black America.

http://mashable.com/2016/02/22/hillary-clinton-mothers-violence/#KExsyd7pvmqu

[Kip Humphrey]

26. the ironic tragedy is these women would likely not have suffered their loses without the Clintons.

[Ken Burch]

32. I am sorry for their losses.

But it isn't true that Bernie didn't reach out to them. He has reached out to all victims of police violence.

[JaneyVee]

20. A conservative drumbeat that Bernie voted for.

[Ken Burch]

30. He wasn't the one who cut the deal that made voting for the crime bill

the only way to save the Violence Against Women Act.

HRC is responsible for that one.

[Rebkeh]

2. Excellent post

The language is the issue?

How insulting.

[nashville_brook]

4. and what's sad is it might have been

a quick pivot that night. if she were a better candidate she would have been able to SAY "i would never SAY those things now," and that wouldn't play so well on video.

but she didn't do that. an even better pivot would have been to say, "i certainly don't support those POLICIES anymore," and she didn't say that!

holy cow. why not? i think it's b/c that crowd you see there STILL wants those policies and still believes that language applies. all these black men aren't being murdered by the police in a political vacuum. it's with the tacit support of communities like the one standing in that room.

[Rebkeh]

5. Amen and amen!

If you stand correct in the first place, you wouldn't have to pivot at all. Why is this hard?

It's maddeningly easy to see, but it's oh so easy to distort.

[nashville_brook]

8. good point on the pivot.

[DirkGently]

9. There will always be bogeyman, is the problem.

Clinton was just channeling the popular conservative freak-out of the time. She wouldn't now, because it isn't WORKING ANYMORE.

That's the difference, though, between being a thought leader, and someone simply adept at navigating the prevailing political currents.

We can do better.

[nashville_brook]

10. DiIulio famously referred to W's admin as "Mayberry Machiavellis"

The equal application of that for HRC's cohort might be "Neiman-Marcus Machiavellis" or perhaps, "Marin County Machiavellis."

[DirkGently]

14. Lots of tactics, some strategy. Little substance.

Hillary is a conservative. Her progressivism is limited to a gradually evolving notion of social fairness, which only recently even included marriage equality. Otherwise she's hawkish, laissez-faire, and prone to these conservative themes about how the wealthy are wise and everyone else is possibly a threat to be "brought to heel."

It would be odd to me if the country that rejected her in favor of Barack Obama's mildly more liberal stance wanted to leap back to the right to put the brakes on at this point.

[Ken Burch]

31. She pretty much just said "I'm sorry if YOU were offended".

In other words, the classic Bush "non-apology apology".

[bobthedrummer]

3. K&R + HRC's Faith Foundation= Know Your BFEE: The Fellowship 'Preys" for America (Octafish Nov.2006)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2591203

[nashville_brook]

7. it's critical to be aware that when we're viewed as means to an end

-- you know, coordinates to be triangulated against -- then we're just as vulnerable under a D as we are under an R. we have to seek the leadership of those who see us as more than votes and money. we need leaders to serve US, not themselves, not their donors. that's why campaign finance is key -- and it's also why The Family (and the religious aspect generally) are so auspiciously grotesque. that money and influence flies under the radar. it's considered naughty to call out religious leaders for being political toadies.

[DirkGently]

13. Well that's just

creepy.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. BLM suporters seem to be ushered out at Hillary events

[nashville_brook]

12. You'd think she would be more sentive to race.

With all the problems she's had with race lately.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

15. Blah! I just wasted a week trying to argue this shit and all for naught

Water under the bridge. It can't be more important to us. Have to move on.

[DirkGently]

16. It's important to everyone to be clear

where people stand, and the kinds of arguments they're willing to make.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

17. I thought so, Dirk. I really wanted it to be important.

I mean, you should have seen my posts, threads, about dog whistle language. Pointing out policies that saw their jobs go overseas and took chipped away at their safety net. Policies that resulted in the loss of a generation of black men. Posting images of Hillary shaming BLM leaders who just want to ask her simple questions. It can't be more important to me. I need to step back and ask myself why is it more important to me?

[nashville_brook]

18. looking at the time stamp --

conservative AA voters in South Carolina aren't indicative of the rest of the country. South Carolina is so cloistered and so closed-off from the rest of the world that it's amazing they still have a functioning Democracy at all.

it took rigging the caucuses in Nevada, last minute gift from Harry Reid: paid time off for CASINO employees who caucus INSIDE their workplace --> no other provisions for other workers in other parts of the state. that's incredibly dirty. HRC BARELY won Iowa. it's embarrassing that anyone would call that race anything but a tie.

so what do we have? a HUGE win for Sanders and a HUGE win for HRC -- this shows how divided the country is, btw.

bravo for both on their wins. on to Super Tues and beyond.

[Fumesucker]

40. "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum." -James Petigru

[bobthedrummer]

19. Sit. Heel. Play dead...

[WillyT]

22. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[bobthedrummer]

23. ^^^ Eugenics is another feature in her elitist Brave New World>>>

The Hidden Tragedy of the CIA's Experiments on Children (Dr. Jeffrey S. Kay and H P Albarelli Jr Truthout 2010)
http://truthout.org/archive/component/k2/item/91211:the-hidden

[nashville_brook]

24. did a search of the article and couldn't find Clinton mentioned

although the techniques outlined there are horrific, and most certainly are on the menu for war hawks like HRC.

maybe you grabbed the wrong link -- fascinating article nonetheless

[bobthedrummer]

25. She wasn't mentioned in that specific article which is representative of what lies in her "lack of

candor" about just about everything-and her "national security" supporters.

Remember too that Charles Murray (The Bell Curve author that teamed up with many other racists like Tommy Thompson) is influential across a broad spectrum that is without any honesty at all.

It's 24/7 psy-ops.

[nashville_brook]

33. ah -- i follow.

thanks for this. that was a CHILLING read.

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, nashville_brook.

[Broward]

28. The real super predators are Hillary's friends on Wall Street.

[nashville_brook]

36. and what the superpred myth triangulates for

finding a scary monster to focus attention on, so that the donors don't pay their fair share or see justice.

[bobthedrummer]

39. +1 n/t

[Ken Burch]

29. "When they came for the poor, I did not speak out, for I was not poor..."

"...when they came for the 'welfare mothers', I did not speak out, for I was not a 'welfare mothers..."

"...when they came for the young black and brown men, I did not speak out, for I was not a young black or brown man..."





(Martin Niemuller updated for the DLC/Bill Clinton era).

[Jitter65]

34. What a lie. I didn't hear Hillary say a word about removing anyone.

Post like this actually work against your candidate. But that's none of my business. Proceed.

[bobthedrummer]

38. You don't by chance have an auditory problem today, do you Jitter65? n/t

[AtomicKitten]

35. Killer Mike weighs in.

[bobthedrummer]

37. An International Woman's Day kick, and remember that HRC & Bill were America's 1st "co-presidency"

and look at how their "policies" have harmed so many of US-particularly people of color and women.

[bobthedrummer]

41. Back to the top, Brook...

[nashville_brook]

42. backatcha!