Hillary Clinton to call for elimination of crack/cocaine sentencing disparities

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is using a Southern campaign swing to outline criminal justice proposals intended to treat black Americans more fairly.

In Atlanta, Clinton will call Friday for eliminating sentencing disparities between crack cocaine crimes and those involving powder cocaine. Clinton proposes making the change retroactive, according to her campaign.

The former secretary of state also will propose a legal ban on racial profiling by police. The policy would forbid federal, state and local officers from “relying on a person’s race when conducting routine or spontaneous investigatory activities,” unless they have information linking a suspect to a crime.

Clinton will speak to a group of black ministers and later at a historically black college. Friday evening, she will address an NAACP banquet in Charleston, South Carolina.

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