The Republican Party platform takes aim at criminal justice reform, vowing to fight “over-criminalization and over-federalization.”
The problem, says the GOP, is that the Obama administration lacks respect for law enforcement officers and the Justice Department lacks respect for the rule of law.
“The current administration’s lack of respect for [police officers], from White House intervention in local arrests to the Attorney General’s present campaign of harassment against police forces around the country, has been unprecedented. With all Americans, we mourn those whom we have lost to violence and hatred,” the platform states. “To honor their sacrifice, we recommit ourselves, as individuals and as a party, to the rule of law and the pursuit of justice.”
It continues: “The conduct of the Department of Justice has included refusal to enforce laws, stonewalling congressional committees, destroying evidence, reckless dealing with firearms that led to several deaths on both sides of our border, and defying a citation for contempt. It has urged leniency for rioters while turning a blind eye to mob attacks on peaceful citizens exercising their political rights.”
The platform states that the next president must adhere to the rule of law — a dig at President Obama’s executive orders. It also says the next president “must not sow seeds of division and distrust” between police and the general public.
The party also points out the massive increase in the number of crimes on the books from the 1980s to today. There are now an additional 1,500 crimes than existed three decades ago, prompting the GOP to call for a pause on new crimes and an extensive review of current laws on the book to purge some crimes.
The platform also requests mens rea to be added to the definition of new crimes, meaning that Americans who violate a law must know they are violating the law. This is kind of an odd demand from Republicans, seeing as how mens rea was used to recommend no charges against Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified material.
It makes proper sense for those seeking reforms in the criminal justice system, of course. It’s just odd that Republicans would stick to this even though one of their biggest adversaries just got away with a crime because she didn’t show the proper intent.
As it has in the past, Republicans reaffirmed their commitment to the death penalty and “the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states.”
And while the platform calls for a review of mandatory minimums involving non-violent crimes and drug offenses, it adds a new mandatory minimum for those who cause serious injury to police officers.
The party’s stance on criminal justice reform also seems unfinished. It ends with a paragraph about child pornography but kept in the clunky “Pornography … has become a public health crisis” line that caused so much media fervor.
Party platforms aren’t really necessary anymore. They’re an antiquated way for the opposing party to find things to criticize. If things aren’t worded perfectly, or enough attention isn’t paid to this issue or that issue, the party will be criticized. Honestly it seems like no good comes from these platforms.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
