The uproar surrounding the death of Freddie Gray and continuing unrest in Baltimore have prompted renewed calls for reforming America’s drug laws, but conservative commentator Pat Buchanan believes it would be wrong for the country to “go soft” on the “curse of the African-American community.”
In part two of The Daily Caller’s interview with the syndicated columnist on the tumultuous situation in Baltimore, Buchanan said he can’t think of any good reason to reform laws that would put drug dealers back on the street. (RELATED: Buchanan SLAMS Charges Against Baltimore Cops: ‘Where Is The Evidence’ For Murder?)
“These drugs are a curse on the African-American community,” he told TheDC. “They are destroying that community more than any other thing I can almost think of, other than the fact that the family has collapsed. And why anyone would go soft on people who make their living selling drugs to African-American kids, teenagers and boys escapes me.” (RELATED: Freddie Gray Had A Long Rap Sheet)
Buchanan’s position stands in contrast with many 2016 presidential candidates. Sen. Rand Paul has been an outspoken advocate of drug reform and eliminating mandatory sentencing, and has even gone so far as to claim the war on drugs is similar to Jim Crow.
Across the aisle, Hillary Clinton is embracing prison reform and delivered a speech last week that demanded the country “reform our criminal justice system” in the wake of the Baltimore riots. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Says Law Enforcement Needs To ‘Improve Transparency’)
Buchanan, on the other hand, questions the logic behind these candidates supporting criminal justice reform and believes their policies would harm the very communities they’re trying to help.
“How do we become a safer, better society by turning felons loose and back into communities like West Baltimore?” he stated.
Instead of the Rand Paul side, the conservative pundit believes Republicans should take the “Rudy Giuliani side” when it comes to crime.
“The whole issue of: ‘Have we come down too much on the side of law and order in stopping crime and making cities more secure?’ if you will, the Rudy Giuliani issue,” Buchanan commented. “It’s going to be a major issue in 2016 and I think the Rudy Giuliani side of it, if you will, is the winning side.”
In Buchanan’s opinion, Giuliani’s tough-on-crime measures are responsible for transforming New York City from “Blade Runner country” in the 1980s into the safe, low-crime city it is today.
“The gains in security and peace in New York City are unbelievable to those of us who knew the city in the 80s,” the political commentator told TheDC.
With the possibility that America is in for a “long, hot summer” of social tension and potential rioting, Buchanan says that the issue of crime is once again becoming a major political issue and that “people are going to have to take sides” when it comes to law and order in 2016.