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 The former president spent more than 10 minutes confronting the
protesters at a campaign rally in Philadelphia for his wife over
criticisms that the crime bill he approved while president led to a
surge in the imprisonment of black people.
The Democratic race for the Nov. 8 election has become increasingly
heated as Hillary Clinton, stung by a string of losses in state
contests, has traded barbs with her rival for the party's
nomination, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, over who is better prepared
for the White House.
In Philadelphia, several protesters heckled the former president
mid-speech and held up signs, including one that read: "CLINTON
Crime Bill Destroyed Our Communities."
Video footage of Hillary Clinton defending the reforms in 1994 has
been widely circulated during the campaign by activists in the Black
Lives Matter protest movement. In the footage, she calls young
people in gangs "super-predators" who need to "be brought to heel."
Hillary Clinton, 68, who also has faced protesters upset by her
remarks, said in February she regretted her language.
Bill Clinton, 69, who was president from 1993 to 2001, defended her
1994 remarks, which protesters say were racially insensitive, and
suggested the protesters' anger was misplaced.
"I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got
13-year-old kids hopped on crack and sent them out on the street to
murder other African-American children," he said, shaking his finger
at a heckler as Clinton supporters cheered, according to video of
the event. "Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She (Hillary
Clinton) didn't."
 "You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter," he
told a protester. "Tell the truth."
Hillary Clinton promised to end "mass incarceration" in the first
major speech of her campaign last year. She has won the support of
the majority of black voters in every state nominating contest so
far, often by a landslide.
Spokesmen for the campaign and Bill Clinton did not immediately
respond on Thursday to a request for comment.
A SURGE IN PRISONERS
The United States has more people in prison than any other country.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1.05 million
prisoners were held in federal or state facilities in 1994. By 2014,
it was 1.56 million. That year, 6 percent of all black men in their
30s were in prison, a rate six times higher than that of white men
of the same age.
Bill Clinton said last year that he regretted signing the Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law because it
contributed to the high incarceration rate of black people for
nonviolent crimes. On Thursday, he did not explicitly recant those
regrets, but appeared to be angry at any suggestion the bill was
wholly bad.
The legislation imposed tougher sentences, put thousands more police
on the streets and helped fund the building of extra prisons. It was
known for its federal "three strikes" provision that sent violent
offenders to prison for life. The bill was backed by congressional
Republicans and hailed at the time as a success for Clinton.
Although Clinton is popular among Democrats who view him as a gifted
orator and crowd pleaser, he has in the past veered from the
carefully calibrated message put out by his wife's campaign, causing
problems for her representatives.
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During Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid, civil rights
leaders and high-ranking Democrats in Congress criticized the former
president for statements he made during a heated campaign against
then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Bill Clinton said Obama's campaign
had “played the race card.” Obama became the first U.S. black
president in November that year.
Bill Clinton's remarks on Thursday drew criticism online. Some saw
him as dismissive of the Black Lives Matter movement, a national
outgrowth of anger over a string of encounters in which police
officers killed unarmed black people.
Johnetta Elzie, a civil rights activist, wrote online that Clinton
"can't handle being confronted by his own record."
"This is like watching a robot malfunction," she wrote.
Earlier in Philadelphia, Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont,
assailed Clinton as unqualified to be president as the two campaigns
became increasingly testy less than two weeks before New York's
nominating contest.
"Are you qualified to be president of the United States when you're
raising millions of dollars from Wall Street, an entity whose greed,
recklessness and illegal behavior helped destroy our economy?"
Sanders said at a news conference.
Clinton this week sharply questioned Sanders' credentials and
ability to carry out a campaign pledge to break up the big banks.
Spokesmen for Clinton noted she never said the word "unqualified"
when she questioned his preparedness for the presidency, but they
declined to say whether she believed in that characterization.
Clinton aimed for a more magnanimous tone than her aides when
speaking to reporters during a subway ride in New York City.
"I don't know why he's saying that," she said of Sanders calling her
unqualified. "But I will take Bernie Sanders over Ted Cruz or Donald
Trump any time," she said of the two leading candidates for the
Republican presidential nomination.
Sanders returned the sentiment in an interview with the "CBS Evening
News" later on Thursday.
"I think the idea of a Donald Trump or a Ted Cruz presidency would
be an unmitigated disaster for this country. I will do everything in
my power and work as hard as I can to make sure that that does not
happen, and if Secretary Clinton is the nominee, I will certainly
support her," he said.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Megan Cassella, Alana Wise
and Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller and Peter
Cooney)
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