[2Bulgarianbeauties]

Bennet was responding to a person in Sarasota, Florida who said to Bennett, "I notice the national media, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious and I've read some articles in recent months here that, you know, abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue for the people who have been aborted during that 30-something years, you know, you could fund Social Security as we know it today."

Bennett is trying to tell people here that abortion is a moral thing and all these tricks that we're going to come up with to try to beat the abortion battle on economics and numbers and crime miss the point. He is disputing a claim in a bood called "Freakanomics" that abortion is good because it has caused a decline in the crime rate. He is not advocating it, he is saying "it is wrong".

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe. Maybe. But we don't know what the cost would be, too. I think -- does abortion disproportionately occur among single women?

CALLER: Uhhh...

BENNETT: Do you know?

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics but quite a bit are, yes.

BENNETT: All right. Well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book, Freakanomics, is that they make is that the declining crime rate -- you know, they deal with this hypothesis that one of the reasons that crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think so it is either.

CALLER: Yeah.

BENNETT: I don't think it is either because, first of all, I think there's just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.

BENNETT: That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do. But your crime rate would go down.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: Well, this --

BENNETT: So these far-out, these far-reaching, you know, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

[Kelli]

I heard the part of the interview and I read the transcript. The bottom line for me is that he believes, no matter how reprensible and immoral it may be, that we could reduce crime just by aborting black babies. IMO, there is no other way to interpet his comments and I understand the context in which it was said

It's funny, but I'm not the least bit surprised that he (or others) might feel this way (which is probably a sad statement in itself), but what surprises me is that he made the comments for all the world to hear, and he obviously felt comfortable enough to do so in that particular arena. I have no doubt that he's smart enough to know his comments would pack a powerful punch (something the media can latch on to and increase the uproar) but he obviously doesn't care.

Kelli

[brian32258]

Wow...What was Bennett thinking? Or, better yet, what was the fromer Anti-Drug Czar smoking?
At 48, I'm one of the older posters here. I remember, as a northern child, visiting my southern grandparents during the summer. When I went to the movies, separate spaces were for "Whites Only" or "Blacks Only". I thought this was nuts--seeing young black children have to stand behind plexiglass (shields?) to get snacks or soft drinks.
Seems like Bennett doesn't want us to forget those "not-so-good-ol-days"! And to think, years ago, I bought my sons his "Childrens' Book of Virtues"! Where's the virtue in his comments?
Bennett seems to have more in common with Robert Byrd, a former klansmen, than he'd like to admit.

[LisaCA]

what really stinks is that the right wing is trying to defend bennett and his statement. Blacks don't commit more crime, their crimes are just the ones that we search for. White collar crimes and others are just not the target of much law enforcement, not like we search for those involved with drugs, for example. so crazy and so sad.

[bluelidded]

Once there were two men who came to significant power in powerful countries.

Both had addiction problems.

Both wrote books forcing their ideas of morality down the world's throat.

Both proposed genocide as a means of stopping crime.

One had a funny mustache. Can you name the other?

[bromanchik]

Hitler's one, who's the other? Don't leave me hanging!

BTW, The fact that this type of overt racism is at all acceptable to some people makes me sick to my stomach. Since when is genocide virtuous?

A few quick facts.
85% of those who use illegal drugs are white, yet they are less likely than blacks to be arrested; once arrested they are less likely to be convicted; once convicted they are less likely to go to prison.

Just because there are a disproportional number of blacks in prison does not mean whites are morally upstanding.

[buccasmom]

I heard the same comment! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! I guess I am raising two criminals myself.

[bluelidded]

LOL Broman. What can I say?