How a crime bill meant to boost Democrats now divides the party
WASHINGTON - Twenty-five years ago, after passing the most sweeping anti-crime bill in history, Democrats were ecstatic, convinced they'd not only addressed a top concern of voters but finally shed the party's soft-on-crime label.
That was then.
A quarter century after Joe Biden helped shepherd it into law, the legislation has become a point of fierce contention among Democrats and emerged as a likely flash point in the series of presidential debates that begin Wednesday night in Miami.
Some consider the law too tough and many, including President Donald Trump, blame it for a wave of mass incarceration that has filled prisons with a flood of black and brown inmates.
"It destroyed entire neighborhoods, destroyed entire communities and we're still paying the price and suffering from
