Today in Atlanta, Georgia, Hillary Clinton will unveil core components of her extensive criminal justice reform agenda, including a call for legislation that ends racial profiling by law enforcement officials and the elimination of the distinction between crack and powder cocaine in drug sentencing.
As more and more Americans recognize criminal justice reform as a key issue in bringing fairness and prosperity to this country, the Republican presidential contenders continue to push out-of-date policies and spew the same hateful rhetoric we have come to expect from Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and others.
Marco Rubio referred to drug sentencing reform as a “careless weakening of drug laws.” Jeb Bush has advocated for gun-sentencing proposals that critics say unfairly target African-Americans. And most Republican candidates have refused to acknowledge the power and importance of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” – even calling it “bullying” and “sickening.” When viewed in full, the GOP’s criminal justice record is woefully inadequate and stuck in the past.
The Republican Party’s out-of-date policies and out-of-touch rhetoric simply won’t cut it.
The GOP on Criminal Justice
Donald Trump
Police Brutality
In 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in four major New York newspapers titled, “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back the Police!” “‘Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back the Police!’ Trump’s ad in the four main metropolitan newspapers screamed in two-inch type. ‘At what point did we cross the line from the fine and noble pursuit of genuine civil liberties to the reckless and dangerously permissive atmosphere which allows criminals of every age to beat and rape a helpless woman and then laugh at her family’s anguish?’’ the ad said in part. […] In explaining why he bought the ads, Trump said Saturday in a telephone interview, ‘The criminal is being protected and the the victim is getting zero protection.’ Discussing the Central Park attack, the developer said, ‘‘How does (the victim) have civil liberties lying in hospital, close to death and these criminals are already chanting “police brutality?” It’s absolutely disgraceful, disgraceful.’” [United Press International, 5/1/89]
- Donald Trump said he wanted to “unshackle [police] from the constant chant of ‘police brutality’.” “In arguing that a 14-year-old boy should be killed, he pushed New Yorkers to ‘unshackle [police] from the constant chant of ‘police brutality’’ that overtook the city then as it has in the past year.” [Daily Dot, 9/1/15]
Donald Trump pitched himself as a “law and order” candidate who would give more power to police departments. “Sharpening his pitch to what he calls ‘the silent majority,’ Donald Trump presented himself Saturday as the ‘law and order’ candidate in the 2016 presidential race, pledging to ‘get rid’ of gangs and give more power to police officers. Speaking to the National Federation of Republican Assemblies for more than an hour, in the heart of a Southern city where student sit-ins helped launch the 1960s-era civil rights movement, the Republican complained that cops are afraid to be tough in the face of more scrutiny over their tactics. ‘I know cities where police are afraid to even talk to people because they want to be able to retire and have their pension,’ he said. ‘They don’t want to be pulled off the police forces. And then you wonder what’s wrong with our cities. We need a whole new mind-set.’” [Washington Post, 8/29/15]
Black Lives Matter
Donald Trump on Black Lives Matter: “I think they’re trouble.” “GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Tuesday night said he supported all lives and suggested that supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement are promoting ‘hate.’ ‘I think they’re trouble. I think they’re looking for trouble,’ the tough-talking tycoon said during a Fox News interview with Bill O’Reilly. ‘I looked at a couple of people that were interviewed from the group. I saw them with hate coming down the street last week talking about cops and police and what should be done to them. That was not good,’ Trump said.” [The Hill, 9/9/15]
Ben Carson
Incarceration
Ben Carson said he was “flabbergasted by the accommodations” at federal prisons, saying they were to “conducive to comfort.” “In addressing the young Republicans, Carson also said that he, like President Obama, had visited federal prisons. ‘I was flabbergasted by the accommodations — the exercise equipment, the libraries and the computers,’ he said. He said he was told that ‘a lot of times when it’s about time for one of the guys to be discharged, especially when its winter, they’ll do something so they can stay in there.’ […] ‘I think that we need to sometimes ask ourselves, “Are we creating an environment that is conducive to comfort where a person would want to stay, versus an environment where we maybe provide them an opportunity for rehabilitation but is not a place that they would find particularly comfortable?”’ he told reporters.” [Washington Post, 7/21/15]
War on Drugs
Ben Carson on whether he would continue the War on Drugs: “Absolutely…I intensify it.” “If elected president, Ben Carson won’t just continue to wage the perennially failing War on Drugs, like all of his predecessors in both parties since Richard Nixon—he would intensify the failed policy, because … well, better to quote him directly. Here is the hard-to-follow reasoning he offered in an interview with Glenn Beck: Glenn Beck: Do you continue the War on Drugs? Ben Carson: Absolutely. Beck: You do? Carson: I intensify it.” [Atlantic, 10/23/15]
Ben Carson said that marijuana legalization would lead to “hedonistic activity.” “The legal sale of recreational marijuana began in Colorado on Jan. 1, but Dr. Ben Carson sees it as society’s latest step downward. The use of medical marijuana in some cases has been proven to be useful, Carson said Thursday on Fox News Channel’s ‘On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.’ But, he added, it is a gateway drug. ‘I don’t think this is something we really want for our society,’ Carson said. ‘You know, we’re gradually just removing all the barriers to hedonistic activity. We’re changing so rapidly to a different type of society, and nobody is getting a chance to discuss it because it’s taboo.’” [Newsmax, 1/2/14]
Black Lives Matter
Ben Carson called the Black Lives Matter movement “bullying” and “sickening.” “In a move sure to catapult him to the top of Bill O’Reilly’s most favored list, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson blasted Black Lives Matter for ‘bullying people’ and slammed the movement’s motto as ‘sickening.’ When the conservative former neurosurgeon traveled to Ferguson, Missouri this past Friday, September 11, CBS’s Major Garret rode along with the rising Republican on Carson’s first visit to the city. Seated besides embattled Ferguson Mayor James Knowler, Carson took the opportunity to lash out at the Black Lives Matter that was borne out of the August 2014 shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. ‘The Black Lives Matter movement, where it’s foisting yourself on people – rather than engaging in dialogue – and bullying people,’ Carson described, adding, ‘I never liked the idea of bullying on behalf of anybody.’” [Salon, 9/14/15]
Marco Rubio
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Marco Rubio voted for a bill that extended Florida’s 10-20-Life mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines to 16 and 17 year olds. “Lawmakers passed a couple of crime bills on their final day. The Senate voted 31 7 for a bill (SB 1548) that will make most teen age felons who use guns while committing serious crimes serve the same prison sentences as adults. The measure, which extends last year’s 10 20 life law to most 16 and 17 year olds, cleared the House Thursday and goes to Gov. Jeb Bush.” [Associated Press, 5/5/00; SB 1548, 3/7/00; House roll call vote 491, 5/4/00]
Marco Rubio said the reform of drug sentencing guidelines was “careless weakening of drug laws.” “In an op-ed for the conservative Washington Times, Rubio made the noncontroversial case that whomever succeeds Eric Holder as attorney general should be ‘committed to the Constitution,’ and in doing so, seemed to make a vague endorsement of the war on drugs—placing him out of step with a large and loud faction of the conservative movement. ‘While individuals from a variety of perspectives have made a compelling case that American law has been over-criminalized and over-federalized,’ Rubio wrote, ‘…reform should not begin with careless weakening of drug laws that have done so much to help end the violence and mayhem that plagued American cities in prior decades.’” [Daily Beast, 10/3/14]
Stand Your Ground
Marco Rubio cosponsored Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law and restated his support for the measure after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. “Sen. Marco Rubio confirmed Thursday he still supports Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, which he originally cosponsored as a state representative in 2005. ‘I was in favor of it then, and I am now,’ Rubio told the Washington Examiner.” [Washington Examiner, 7/18/13; HB 249, 1/10/05]
Marco Rubio was a member of a lobbying group that worked to spread Stand Your Ground laws to other states. “Rubio is listed as a member of ALEC, the lobbying group that helped spread Stand Your Ground to other states before losing sponsors.” [Huffington Post, 7/15/13]
Jeb Bush
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Jeb Bush signed the 10-20-Life plan, which set mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years for committing a violent crime with a gun, 20 years for firing the gun during the crime, and 25 years to life for causing bodily injury with a bullet. “Bush is calling his plan ‘10/20/Life,’ exactly the same name adopted by supporters in California. The law would require minimum, mandatory sentences of 10 years for committing a violent crime with a gun, 20 years for firing the gun during the crime and 25 years to life for causing bodily injury with a bullet.” [St. Petersburg Times, 9/23/98]
- Black lawmakers said Jeb Bush’s gun-sentencing proposal unfairly targeted African-Americans. “Black lawmakers say the tough gun-sentencing proposal unfairly targets African-Americans. Some of Florida’s black political leaders are attacking Gov. Jeb Bush’s chief crime initiative as a racially motivated way to keep young black men behind bars. The state House approved Bush’s gun-sentencing proposal Wednesday, and the Senate could do so as early as today.” [St. Petersburg Times, 3/11/99]
Jeb Bush signed into law a bill that extended Florida’s 10-20-Life mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines to 16 and 17 year olds. “Lawmakers passed a couple of crime bills on their final day. The Senate voted 31 7 for a bill (SB 1548) that will make most teen age felons who use guns while committing serious crimes serve the same prison sentences as adults. The measure, which extends last year’s 10 20 life law to most 16 and 17 year olds, cleared the House Thursday and goes to Gov. Jeb Bush.” [Associated Press, 5/5/00; SB 1548, 3/7/00]
Jeb Bush established a Florida statute that expanded mandatory minimum sentences and included “death” as a guideline for severe drug offenses “depending on the type and amount of the controlled substance.” “Create mandatory prison sentences for persons convicted of drug trafficking. Mandatory minimum prison sentences of 3, 7, 15, 25 years, life or death will be imposed depending on the type and amount of the controlled substance. A minimum of three years will be mandated for any person convicted of possession, sale, importation, etc., of at least 25 pounds of cannabis, 4 grams of flunitrazepam, morphine, opium or heroin, 14 grams of amphetamine, 28 grams of cocaine and phencyclidine, or 200 grams of methaqualone. Penalties increase as the type and amount of the drugs increase or if use of the drug results in someone’s death.” [MyFlorida.com, accessed 4/9/15]
Racism in the Justice System
Jeb Bush said he did not think “there’s evidence of” the death penalty being applied more frequently to black defendants. “Bush, who insisted that lawmakers deal with speeding up the complex appeals process, said he doesn’t think the death penalty is applied more frequently to black defendants. ‘I don’t think there’s evidence of that being the case,’ Bush said during a meeting Thursday with four of his closest allies in the black caucus.” [Orlando Sentinel, 1/7/00]
Jeb Bush opposed a measure “that would allow accused murderers to argue that race is a factor in their cases.” “On Thursday, as lawmakers approved a switch to lethal injection as Florida’s chief form of execution, Democrats tried to add a provision that would allow accused murderers to argue that race is a factor in their cases. The GOP-led Legislature rejected the measure. Gov. Jeb Bush, who also opposed the measure, established a 15-member task force to study the role of race in capital sentencing.” [St. Petersburg Times, 1/7/00]
Jeb Bush angered black lawmakers by refusing “to consider allowing blacks sentenced to death to challenge the sentence on grounds that it was racially motivated.” “Black lawmakers are angry that Bush refused to consider allowing blacks sentenced to death to challenge the sentence on grounds that it was racially motivated. They cited a 1991 study showing that black convicts in Florida are more likely to receive the death penalty, and that killers of white people were three times as likely to get the electric chair as killers of black people. Rep. Beryl Roberts, D-Miami, one of those pressured to vote for the appeals bill, said Bush’s refusal to take up the racial justice provision sealed her decision to vote no. ‘He knows we need to address what is a recognized problem, and he should have gone ahead and addressed it,’ Roberts said. ‘Don’t study me any more,’ said Rep. Les Miller of Tampa, the House Democratic leader. ‘As an African American, I’m sick of being studied. African Americans have been studied since we got off the slave ship.’” [Miami Herald, 1/9/00]
Stand Your Ground
Jeb Bush signed Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” gun legislation into law. “With a National Rifle Association lobbyist looking on, Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Tuesday a bill that will allow Floridians to use force on an attacker without first trying to escape. Bush signed into law a broad new expansion of the ‘castle doctrine’ — an old legal tenet giving residents the license to kill criminals while protecting their home. Under current Florida law, a person attacked in any public place — a supermarket, a bar, a library — must first attempt to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense. The new measure, which takes effect in October, removes the obligation to flee, allowing people to legally kill their attackers if they feel threatened.” [Orlando Sentinel, 4/27/05; SB 436, 12/08/04]
- Jeb Bush “did not waver in his support” of his “Stand Your Ground” legislation after Trayvon Martin’s killer was acquitted. “But Mr. Bush didn’t waver in his support for the underlying legislation. ‘Applied properly, I support the law,’ Mr. Bush said shortly after the incident.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/9/15]
Police Brutality
Jeb Bush denied there was “a systemic problem” with police brutality in the United States. “Bush, a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said ‘no’ when asked by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly if ‘policing is the problem’ in cities like Baltimore or in Ferguson, Missouri, which have both been rocked by violent protests following police-involved deaths of African-American men. ‘I don’t think it’s a systemic problem,’ Bush replied in the interview, which aired Monday night.” [Business Insider, 5/12/15]
Black Lives Matter
Jeb Bush on Black Lives Matter: “It’s a slogan, I guess.” “O’Malley came under fire for adding ‘white lives matter, all lives matter’ to the protesters’ calls – a statement he has since apologized for. But Bush said Thursday that O’Malley had nothing to be sorry about. ‘I mean, we’re so uptight and so politically correct now that we apologize for saying ‘lives matter?’’ Bush said. ‘Life is precious, it’s a gift from God. I frankly think that it’s one of the most important values that we have. I know in the political context, it’s a slogan, I guess. And should he have apologized? No.’” [MSNBC, 7/30/15]
Ted Cruz
Stand Your Ground
Ted Cruz defended Stand Your Ground laws. “Sen. Ted Cruz defended stand your ground laws today at a hearing on self-defense legislation, arguing that Washington should leave such decisions to the states. […] Cruz said opposition to the laws amounted to an attempt to take way individuals’ rights to defend themselves. He called self-defense rights a ‘bedrock liberty.’ ‘The notion that critics of these laws put forth, that if you’re attacked on the street by a violent attacker, you’re obliged to turn and run rather than defend yourself, is a notion contrary to hundreds of years of our jurisprudence,’ Cruz said.” [Dallas Morning News, 10/29/13]
Black Lives Matter
Ted Cruz said that the Black Lives Matter movement was “literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers.” “When ThinkProgress asked Cruz if he’d be willing to sit down for a meeting with Black Lives Matter activists, he said ‘sure, I’m happy to meet with just about anybody.’ But then he elaborated that the activists were threatening police officers. ‘If you look at the Black Lives Matter movement, one of the most disturbing things is more than one of their protests have embraced rabid rhetoric, rabid anti-police language, literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers,’ the Texas senator said. ‘That is disgraceful.’” [Think Progress, 10/14/15]
Mike Huckabee
Incarceration
Mike Huckabee said it “really would be” ideal to sell criminals into slavery rather than imprison them. “Host Jan Mickelson began by bemoaning that the ‘criminal justice system has been taken over by progressives.’ In order to fight back, he argued, conservatives should look to the biblical Book of Exodus. ‘It says, if a person steals, they have to pay it back two-fold, four-fold,’ Mickelson explained. ‘If they don’t have anything, we’re supposed to take them down and sell them.’ Mickelson went on to argue why jails, which he claimed are a ‘pagan invention,’ are inferior to slavery: ‘We indenture them and they have to spend their time not sitting on their stump in a jail cell, they’re supposed to be working off the debt.’ ‘Wouldn’t that be a better choice?’ the host asked. ‘Well, it really would be,’ Huckabee replied without missing a beat. ‘Sometimes the best way to deal with a nonviolent criminal behavior is what you just suggested.’” [Think Progress, 10/15/15]
Black Lives Matter
Mike Huckabee said Martin Luther King, Jr. would be “appalled” by the Black Lives Matter movement. “‘When I hear people scream, ‘black lives matter,’ I think, ‘Of course they do.’ But all lives matter. It’s not that any life matters more than another,’ Huckabee said in the interview aired on ‘The Situation Room.’ ‘That’s the whole message that Dr. King tried to present, and I think he’d be appalled by the notion that we’re elevating some lives above others,’ Huckabee said.” [CNN, 8/18/15]
Rand Paul
Police Brutality
Rand Paul on Baltimore: “I came through the train on Baltimore last night. I’m glad the train didn’t stop.” “On Tuesday, as Baltimore burned in the wake of the latest episode surrounding the alleged use of deadly excessive force, Paul’s response was notably off-key. ‘I came through the train on Baltimore last night,’ Paul told host Laura Ingraham. ‘I’m glad the train didn’t stop.’ The senator’s breezy response came just before he blamed the violent uprising there on ‘the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the lack of sort of a moral code in our society.’ He also expressed his sympathy for ‘the plight of police,’ all without speaking to the circumstances surrounding the troubling death of Freddie Gray in the custody of Baltimore Police.” [Politico, 4/30/15]
John Kasich
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
John Kasich voted for NRA-backed legislation that imposed “a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for using a gun to commit a crime or for felons caught carrying guns.” “The bill, which passed 358-60, creates a $100 million project to expand Project Exile nationally. It offers grants to states that impose a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for using a gun to commit a crime or for felons caught carrying guns. […] ‘While Bill Clinton was performing in the theater of press conference politics, the House was passing legislation to take a proven, tough law enforcement program nationwide,’ said James Jay Baker, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. He said the House vote ‘highlights the difference between political theater and proven, effective public policy.’ […] Kasich, Y” [Washington Times, 4/12/00]
Chris Christie
Stop and Frisk
Chris Christie said he would bring back the stop-and-frisk program “in about five minutes” if he were Mayor of New York. “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that if he were mayor of New York City, he would bring back the stop-and-frisk program, slamming Mayor Bill de Blasio for the policies he’s implemented. ‘Stop-and-frisk would be back in about five minutes and we would empower the police, not undercut them,’ Christie told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Tuesday. ‘And listen, if police officers step over the line, then they deserve to be taken care of and prosecuted. But this mayor presumes guilt on the part of the police officers before anything happens.’ The contentious police program allowed police officers to stop a pedestrian and search them for weapons and contraband, but was sharply criticized by criminal justice reform advocates who said it unfairly targeted African-Americans.” [CNN, 9/8/15]
War on Drugs
Chris Christie vowed to “crack down” on states that legalized marijuana. “New Jersey Gov. and potential Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Tuesday that he would ‘crack down’ on states that have legalized marijuana if he were elected president. ‘Absolutely,’ Mr. Christie said on ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show’ when asked if he would enforce federal drug laws in states where marijuana is legalized, The Hill reported. ‘I will crack down and not permit it.’” [Washington Times, 4/15/15]
Black Lives Matter
Chris Christie claimed the Black Lives Matter movement was “calling for the murder of police officers.” “The Black Lives Matter movement is creating an environment that can put police officers at risk, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Sunday, accusing President Barack Obama of supporting the movement, encouraging ‘lawlessness’ and not backing up law enforcement. ‘I don’t believe that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers,’ Christie said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ Told that some individual members have been recorded calling for the deaths of officers, Christie replied that the environment is ‘what the movement is creating.’” [Associated Press, 10/25/15]
Lindsey Graham
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Lindsey Graham voted against allowing the full Senate to consider legislation that would weaken mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for lesser crimes. “Congress will also consider the Smarter Sentencing Act, which would cut in half mandatory 10 and 20 year terms for some lesser federal drug crimes. The law would give judges some discretion to impose sentences below the mandatory minimum. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in January and could be taken up by the full Senate as early as May. […] The Smarter Sentencing Act also has bipartisan support, but not everyone is on board. Several Republican Judiciary Committee members did not vote in favor of the bill when it was voted out of the Committee 13-5 in January. They included Grassley, Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Orrin Hatch of Utah.” [MSNBC, 4/28/14]
Lindsey Graham voted for NRA-backed legislation that imposed “a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for using a gun to commit a crime or for felons caught carrying guns.” “The bill, which passed 358-60, creates a $100 million project to expand Project Exile nationally. It offers grants to states that impose a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for using a gun to commit a crime or for felons caught carrying guns. […] ‘While Bill Clinton was performing in the theater of press conference politics, the House was passing legislation to take a proven, tough law enforcement program nationwide,’ said James Jay Baker, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. He said the House vote ‘highlights the difference between political theater and proven, effective public policy.’ […] Graham, Y” [Washington Times, 4/12/00]
Rick Santorum
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Rick Santorum cosponsored legislation to expand the use of mandatory minimum sentences. “Mandatory minimum sentences in drug crimes have proven to be ineffective and costly. They undermine the very concept of an independent judiciary by forcing judges to give predetermined jail terms without considering the individual circumstances. So, naturally, 14 U.S. senators, including Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, want to expand their use. The state’s other senator, Arlen Specter, should lead the fight to kill legislation called the ‘Drug Free Century Act’ when it comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month. These lawmakers apparently are unmoved by the overwhelming opposition to mandatory minimums by federal judges and the American Bar Association, and mounting criticism by corrections officials. They seem more interested in the political and intuitive appeal of long sentences – whether or not they fit the crime or curb addiction.” [Philly.com, 3/26/99; S.5, 1/19/99]
Bobby Jindal
Incarceration
Bobby Jindal vetoed legislation “that would reduce Louisiana’s nation-leading incarceration rate” and redirect financial savings into prisoner rehabilitation. “Gov. Bobby Jindal has vetoed legislation that would reduce Louisiana’s nation-leading incarceration rate by speeding up parole eligibility for violent criminals and then invest the financial savings in prisoner rehabilitation. The legislation, considered by some the most impactful piece of sentencing reform to emerge from the recent state legislative session, passed easily in the Louisiana Legislature with vocal bipartisan support and was backed by the state’s influential sheriffs and district attorneys associations.” [Times-Picayune, 6/20/14]
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Bobby Jindal signed legislation that increased both the mandatory minimum and maximum terms of imprisonment for heroin distribution. “Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law Friday (May 30) a bill that sets the maximum penalty for repeat offenses of heroin distribution at 99 years, up from 50. The new law also increases the mandatory minimum amount of time those convicted even once of dealing the drug must serve in prison to 10 years, up from five. [Times-Picayune, 5/31/14]
- Bobby Jindal signed legislation that reversed earlier drug sentencing reform legislation. “The virtual life sentence of the 99-year prison term also reverses, some noted, sentencing reform the Louisiana Legislature passed a few years ago that lowered the penalty for heroin distribution from an actual life sentence to 50 years. Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, said it took a decade to push that reform through successfully.” [Times-Picayune, 5/31/14]
Bobby Jindal signed legislation that increased the maximum penalty for fleeing from a police officer from 2 years to 5 years in prison. “Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a number of bills related to criminal justice and the treatment of convicts into Louisiana law Friday (May 16). […] Legislation that allows people who flee a law enforcement officer to be imprisoned for up to five years. Currently, they only be imprisoned for two years. If someone is hurt by a person trying to flee arrest, then the person fleeing could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.” [Times-Picayune, 5/17/14]