In Defense of Bill Clinton - No Democrat will speak up for his record in reducing crime.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Unleashing Bill Clinton as a Hillary campaign surrogate carries risks, as the former President can morph from effective advocate to roving liability, often in one sentence. The press is calling Mr. Clinton’s verbal dismantling of Black Lives Matter activists on Thursday an example of the latter, but in this case he is right on the merits and it’s a shame no one else in the Democratic Party will say so.

Protestors at a Philadelphia event heckled Mr. Clinton over 1994 bipartisan legislation to reduce crime, blaming the measure for more incarceration. One wielded a sign saying “black youth are not super predators,” a reference to a term Mrs. Clinton deployed in 1996 to describe young gang members, which she’s since apologized for. This is when Bill erupted.

“This is what’s the matter,” he said, motioning at the agitators. “I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-olds hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African-American children. Maybe you thought they were good citizens.” He dug in further: “You are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter!”

Over some 13 minutes Mr. Clinton ticked off statistics on the drop in crime over the past two decades, including declines in murder and gun violence. He’s right that the bipartisan efforts of that era helped reduce crime enough so that policy makers can now consider criminal justice and sentencing reforms. Progressives at the time were happy to go along with Mr. Clinton’s New Democratic policies when center-right positioning seemed essential to winning the White House. But now they’re too intimidated by Black Lives Matter to tell the truth.

Mr. Clinton told a crowd at Penn State-Behnrend on Friday that he “almost” wanted to apologize for the incident, and it’s a sign of the progressive times that even a former President must kowtow to radical children with a political megaphone but no historical memory. The Black Lives Matter agitators should thank President Clinton, not excoriate him.