Ta-Nehisi Coates just endorsed Bernie.  I think his candidacy "is awesome" Coates told Amy Goodman.

Michelle Alexander and RMRD criticize Sanders for voting for Clinton's 1994 Omnibus Crime bill which included the notorious 3 strikes and you're out legislation.  They leave out crucial context.  PP defends the Clintons on the ground that we were facing unprecedented crime rates at the time. 

In response Sanders spoke out passionately and humanely against the increase in incarceration to which the bill would lead and offered an alternative to the massive increase in police and prison spending.

Sanders prescient remarks:

In a similar way, Mr. Speaker, a society which neglects, which oppresses and which disdains a very significant part of its population—which leaves them hungry, impoverished, unemployed, uneducated, and utterly without hope, will, through cause and effect, create a population which is bitter, which is angry, which is violent, and a society which is crime-ridden. This is the case in America, and it is the case in countries throughout the world.

Mr. Speaker, how do we talk about the very serious crime problem in America without mentioning that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, by far, with 22 percent of our children in poverty and 5 million who are hungry today? Do the Members think maybe that might have some relationship to crime? How do we talk about crime when this Congress is prepared, this year, to spend 11 times more for the military than for education; when 21 percent of our kids drop out of high school; when a recent study told us that twice as many young workers now earn poverty wages as 10 years ago; when the gap between the rich and the poor is wider, and when the rate of poverty continues to grow? Do the members think that might have some relationship to crime?

Mr. Speaker, it is my firm belief that clearly, there are some people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them. But it is also my view that through the neglect of our Government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence. And Mr. Speaker, all the jails in the world, and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country, and all of the executions in the world, will not make that situation right. We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails. Mr. Speaker, let us create a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.

[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 39 (Wednesday, April 13, 1994)]

Here's what Hillary Clinton had to say at the same time when she campaigned for the  bill:

I think as more Americans focus on the fact that this bill would have put more police on the street, would have locked up violent offenders so they could never get out again,” she said. “Would have given more prison construction money available to the states as well as the federal government. But also would have dealt with prevention, giving young people something to say yes to. It’s a very well thought out crime bill that is both smart and tough.

Hillary also praised the bill to cops saying:

“We will be able to say, loudly and clearly, that for repeat, violent, criminal offenders — three strikes and you’re out. We are tired of putting you back in through the revolving door.”

I have a number of serious problems with the Crime Bill, but one part of it that I vigorously support is the Violence Against Women Act. We urgently need the $1.8 billion in this bill to combat the epidemic of violence against women on the streets and in the homes of America.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/29/1476873/-Why-Sanders-gets-a-pass-o...