John Legend, the singer-songwriter and longtime racial justice activist, has thrown his weight behind political campaigns that not often get movie star endorsements: progressive candidates working for district legal professional.
The Grammy, Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner has lengthy been a vocal supporter of the motion to cut back mass incarceration within the US, and has backed a number of chief prosecutors and candidates who search to proper the wrongs of America’s racially biased felony justice system.
Legend, who has spoken overtly in regards to the influence of his mom’s stints in jail whereas battling dependancy, is advocating at a time when progressive prosecutors are dealing with intense backlash; an uptick in gun violence throughout the pandemic has led conservatives, some Democrats and media pundits to push for a return to harsh punishments and “powerful on crime” insurance policies.
Legend – who has endorsed candidates in Tennessee, North Carolina, Oregon and California – spoke to the Guardian over Zoom final week in regards to the significance of DA races, the “defund the police” motion, and his fears in regards to the mounting opposition to reform. This dialog has been edited and condensed for readability.
How did you personally grow to be focused on supporting progressive prosecutors?
It began with seeing the impact that mass incarceration had alone household and group. Each particular person you lock up has a bunch of relations that really feel the results of that. If you separate a baby from their dad or mum, you’re extending this cycle of violence and trauma to that little one, creating extra potential for them to get in hassle sooner or later. We proceed to be probably the most incarcerated nation on the planet. We are able to do higher and be smarter about it. Incarcerating folks and eradicating them from their household needs to be a final resort, not a primary resort, and we needs to be actively looking for alternate options. Eager about mass incarceration and the way we will construct a extra equitable and simply society, how America may very well be really free, I actually turned satisfied that prosecutors are a key lever as a result of they’ve loads of energy of their communities.
Why is it so necessary for voters to care about their native DAs?
Prosecutors make coverage choices about which crimes they’ll concentrate on and prosecute, how a lot they’re going to cost somebody and what they’re going to ask for in sentencing. They resolve whether or not to make use of money bail, which is a extremely discriminatory coverage that forces folks to remain in jail just because they will’t afford bail, main folks to be punished only for being poor. All these choices have an effect on our incarceration charge. In 2017, we began a “Know your DA” schooling marketing campaign with the ACLU, as a result of most individuals in all probability couldn’t inform you who their DA was and didn’t vote that far down on the poll or simply voted for the incumbent. After which we began searching for extra progressive alternate options to run.
This motion you’ve championed is now dealing with severe pushback throughout the nation – what do you make of the opposition?
Now we have to acknowledge that crime did go up on this nation throughout a once-in-a-century pandemic, which brought on extra housing insecurity, meals insecurity, poverty and unemployment. It’s not simply in a single metropolis – it’s in every single place, together with in communities with extra conservative native management and prosecutors. The rise in crime just isn’t correlated as to if or not that group had a progressive prosecutor. Blaming progressive prosecutors just isn’t according to information, and it’s not a great way of assessing what occurred. Crime went up and that’s actual, and all of us have to care and discover methods to resolve these points. However we’re not going to resolve it by mass incarcerating our solution to security. If incarceration was the important thing to us being safer, we’d be the most secure nation on the planet. We’re already probably the most policed nation on the planet.
You could have buddies in Los Angeles who need to see a “powerful on crime” response and are involved about George Gascón, the progressive prosecutor there. How do you discuss to them about this?
You begin with information. George Gascón didn’t trigger the pandemic or the rise in crime because of the pandemic. After which we’ve to speak in regards to the prices of incarceration, not simply financial, however the disruptions to our communities and households, the disruption that I felt myself. Now we have to speak in regards to the heartbreak, despair and violence that incarceration could cause. And we’d like progressive prosecutors who’re considering holistically in regards to the group and ensuring we’re not overusing jails and prisons as an answer to all the pieces. Jails aren’t the answer to psychological well being points, homelessness or drug dependancy. When we’ve prosecutors in place who imagine that, we will incarcerate fewer folks and divert these sources to interventions that can truly assist folks heal and get higher, fairly than jail, which exacerbates their ache and their points. Now we have a gun drawback on this nation and every kind of points that lead folks into crime. We have to concentrate on investing into our communities in order that we might help forestall crime.
How do you are feeling about Democrats who’re pushing again towards progressive DAs and reforms, together with Joe Biden who has strongly opposed calls to “defund the police”?
I’m mystified by the vehemence of the rejection to “defund the police” after we haven’t defunded the police. We’ve elevated funding, particularly because of the American Rescue Plan. We’re already spending extra on policing in America than any nation on the planet spends on their navy, other than China and the US. Spending increasingly more on police with no higher restrict just isn’t the answer. I’m annoyed by Democrats who imagine that throwing more cash at policing goes to resolve these issues and should not trying on the root causes. The answer to homelessness is rising the availability of inexpensive housing and supportive housing. We are able to’t ship the police out to “clear up the streets”. The place are we going to place these of us? In jail?
Though crime general is considerably decrease now, do you are concerned we’re returning to the panic of the Nineties, when there was a push for harsh punishments surrounding the racist “superpredator” delusion?
I’m fearful about it. Again then, it was bipartisan, and now seeing how Biden and others discuss crime, it sounds bipartisan, too. I do know that they’re responding to folks’s actual fears, and I actually do empathize. I’ve had buddies who’ve been victims of crime lately. It’s not an phantasm that individuals are seeing crime go up for the reason that pandemic. Persons are apprehensive and afraid. They really feel much less protected, and we will’t simply say, You’re not experiencing what you’re experiencing. However we’ve to say that there are higher options than extra police and prisons. And politicians have the power to guide on this concern and never simply observe or suggest bandaids. They will concentrate on systemic points that trigger crime and truly in the long term make folks safer.
What do you assume folks ought to perceive in regards to the realities of crime traits proper now?
The press has an necessary function. They make choices in regards to the sources they use – and which sources they use with out skepticism. You’ll discover that even newspapers just like the New York Occasions simply repeat the road that the police communications division offers them with out scrutiny or skepticism. It’s necessary that people who find themselves explaining crime to the general public, don’t sensationalize it and don’t take statements of police unions uncritically. And we’ve to do not forget that loads of instances, progressive prosecutors are getting blamed for nationwide and systemic points. Of us are looking for a neighborhood scapegoat. Alvin Bragg, the progressive prosecutor in New York, received blamed for crime even earlier than he began working.
This isn’t essentially a simple concern to talk out about. I’m curious in case you’ve personally confronted backlash?
Once I communicate out about progressive prosecutors, I normally avoid my Twitter [laughs].
Good name.
As a result of there may be loads of vitriol thrown my method. However what I attempt to clarify is that, what’s radical is how many individuals we’ve incarcerated on this nation. Our establishment is radical. I don’t assume what I’m proposing about the right way to reform our system is that radical.
