Features

It’s no coincidence that declining support for capital punishment has been accompanied by increased mistrust of law enforcement and discomfort with the war on drugs. A relative lull in violent crime during the 1990s contributed to a reconsideration of harsh police practices and prosecutorial tactics. But many people are willing to tolerate bad policing so […]

C rime is down across America. The nation’s crime rate has been dropping for the best part of a decade now, and everyone is keen to take the credit. New York’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani claims that zero-tolerance policing is responsible; former California Governor Pete Wilson credits three-strikes-and-you’re-out laws; President Bill Clinton says gun control and […]

In a modest hotel room, Bobby Esposito and Cynthia Bennington, two young assistant district attorneys, have just made love for the first time. For the high-toned Bennington, the occasion is a breakthrough. “I’ve never had an orgasm before,” she tells Esposito. He’s pleased, but his mind is elsewhere. He’s worried about inequities in the system. […]

Pat Barker may be the most important progressive novelist to reach full artistic maturity in the past 10 years. The more famous she becomes, however, the less frequently do critics acknowledge her as an ardently political writer. Border Crossing, her ninth novel–this one a crime thriller set in contemporary, urban England–is likely to cement the […]

Two months after the fact, New York City Mayor Giuliani, purportedly mellowed by prostate cancer, issued an apology of sorts to the family of Patrick Dorismond, the unarmed Haitian-American man killed by New York police in March. The mayor did not apologize for the killing itself or for having personally unsealed Dorismond’s juvenile police record […]

The final numbers aren’t in yet, but we may soon be calling this the first $4-billion presidential election in U.S. history. (About half as much was spent by parties and candidates a mere four years ago.) With most of the campaign money coming from special interests, the need for comprehensive reform intensifies. A new wave […]

Despite the materialism that defines American culture and our reverence for financial success, a suspicion that money really is the root of all evil retains its appeal, especially among progressives. The association of wealth with corruption is particularly clear in debates about campaign finance reform. Reformers are self-proclaimed proponents of “clean elections”; their opponents are […]

Robert Torricelli, junior senator from New Jersey and the man leading the Democratic effort to regain the Senate, is on the move. Sitting in the back seat of a black Lincoln Town Car on the way to a speech at a Jersey shore hospital, he’s discussing his success raising money for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign […]

Visit the Web site of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and you’ll be greeted by an animated banner ad blaring: “Contribute! In the ’98 elections, Democrats were outspent 3 to 1.” Fair enough. As a whole, Republicans routinely outraise and outspend Democrats, and that’s been especially so since Democrats lost control of Congress in […]