[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22711-22712]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            WILLIAM BENNETT

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, during a recent radio broadcast, 
conservative critic William Bennett said the following: ``If you wanted 
to reduce crime, you could abort every black baby in this country and 
your crime rate would go down.''
  But Mr. Bennett's hypothesis, as absurd and racist as it is, does not 
tell the real story.
  According to the Department of Justice national crime statistics of 
men and women behind bars, approximately 43 percent are black, 38 
percent are white, and 19 percent are Hispanic. Whites, however, make 
up 70 percent of all persons arrested, and 60 percent of those are 
arrested for violent crime.
  So why the disparity between whites arrested and whites convicted? 
Could it have to do with the fact that poorer defendants, often people 
of color, are more likely to receive substandard legal representation 
and harsher sentences?
  Madam Speaker, getting justice in America seems to have a lot more to 
do with the color of your skin and the color of the green in your 
pocket. Now, that is not virtuous.

[[Page 22712]]



                          ____________________