Congressman Cohen Questions Expert Witnesses at a Hearing on Sentencing Reform – Congressman Steve Cohen

WASHINGTON Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today questioned witnesses at a Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security hearing on Undoing the Damage of the War on Drugs: A Renewed Call for Sentencing Reform.

In his remarks, Congressman Cohen noted what he called the true reason for the War on Drugs revealed by former Nixon Administration senior domestic adviser John Ehrlichman in a 1994 article in Harpers Magazine.

Mr. Ehrlichman said, You want to know what this is really about? The Nixon campaign in 1968 and the Nixon White House after that had two enemies: the anti-war Left and Black people. You understand what Im saying? We knew we couldnt make it illegal to be either against the war or Black but, by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Congressman Cohen said that that the War on Drugs since the 1930s has been a campaign against Black and Brown Americans: racist, racist, racist, and always has been and still is.

Congressman Cohen, the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, noted that he introduced a Constitutional amendment in January to reform the pardon power so that, as he put it, it is about mercy and justice and not taking care of cronies and covering up crimes. He said it should be used to commute non-violent drug offense sentences.

See the entire exchange here.

Witnesses at todays hearing were:

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Congressman Cohen Questions Expert Witnesses at a Hearing on Sentencing Reform - Congressman Steve Cohen