Justice for All — Tulsi Gabbard at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Forum

“For so long we have heard politicians paying lip-service to the issue of criminal justice reform, it is a familiar talking point, but what is actually done about it? There's no real action, no real serious changes being made. Instead, one generation after another continues to fall victim to a justice system that is fundamentally unjust. So we think to our Pledge of Allegiance, that we've said over and over throughout our lives, it reminds us that we are one nation under God... One nation under God with liberty and justice for all. Justice for all.

So while some progress has been made over generations and over time we can all agree that we are so far still from achieving that objective, of justice for all. Why is that? It's because too often we have people in positions of power who don't care about serving the people, they don't care about actually serving justice, instead they are abusing their positions of power and privilege for their own selfish interest. It's unfortunately become so much a part of the fabric of our society that we barely bat an eye when wall street bankers who have cheated and gambled and lost billions of our money have not served a day in prison, and they are actually rewarded with million dollar bonuses.

We have big pharmaceutical companies, companies like Purdue Pharma who have cheated and lied to the American people just so they can proliferate these highly addictive opioid drugs on our streets, driving up their profits, ruining people's lives, causing the deaths of tens-of-thousands of people yet what happens to them? They walk away, they get a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile on the other hand we have non-violent drug offenders, arrested, thrown in prison, shackled with a criminal record that will follow them wherever they go, forever.

These are just two examples of this fundamentally unjust system that we have. We have mass-incarceration that's predominately impacted poor people and communities of color, people's lives ruined because of one mistake, while others whose entire careers are built on predatory behavior and exploitation of the innocent are routinely excused. This is not justice.”

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