Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) delivered a sharply worded speech Tuesday calling for criminal justice reform and a robust jobs agenda in the wake of riots in Baltimore that followed the funeral of a resident who died while in police custody.
"No American should ever feel like their life is not valued," Reid said.
Reid decried the violence that has wracked Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, 25 after suffering a severe spinal injury.
But Reid was deeply critical of the police department's handling of its relations with poor inner city residents. "Let’s not pretend the system is fair, let’s not pretend everything is OK," the leader said.
Reid pointed to several pieces of legislation that would allow for changing sentencing laws that were instituted in the wake of the national crime wave of the 1980s and decades later has left a prison population that conservatives and liberals consider an international embarrassment.
"It’s easy believe the system is rigged against you," he said.
Reid previously held the majority leader post and did not bring that legislation, including a bipartisan draft by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), to the Senate floor for consideration.
He also called for a more robust jobs agenda that would address rural and urban poverty.
Paul Kane covers Congress and politics for the Washington Post.
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