MSNBC’s Cross: ‘Failed’ War on Drugs a War on Black, Brown Folks

On the Saturday broadcast of MSNBC’s “Cross Connection,” while introducing a segment on parity for penalties for drug crimes, host Tiffany Cross said the so-called war on drugs was really “a war on black and brown folks.”

“The idea that the United States has two separate criminal justice systems is certainly not a new one on many of us watching this show right now,” she said. “But nothing shows the glaring disparities in so-called crime and punishment quite like the federal sentences for drug crimes, in particular. Crack cocaine, which used to have a 100-to-1 sentencing ratio compared to powder cocaine — meaning, you get the same punishment for one gram of crack as you do for 100 grams of cocaine.”

“You can imagine who that impacted. President Obama did reduce the ratio to 18-to-1 in 2010,” Cross continued. “But that’s not enough. There’s a lot more that needs to be done. So now, Democrats are pushing for a new bill called the EQUAL Act to finally make the penalities equal more than 40 years after this failed war on drugs, which, let’s be honest, was a war on black and brown folks in this country.”

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