PBS NewsHour
September 27, 2023
7:31 p.m. Eastern
GEOFF BENNETT: A new Pew Research study has confirmed what you might already suspect. Americans feel intense dissatisfaction with the way our government currently works and a growing distaste for both political parties. One of the main voices calling for sweeping change is Danielle Allen, a political theorist at Harvard. Judy Woodruff followed her to Tennessee to explore some of her ideas for our ongoing series, "America at a Crossroads."
DANIELLE ALLEN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR (speaking on stage): -- but we don't really seem like we can actually address real problems that we have in our society. So there's real basis for people's frustration with where our democracy is.
JUDY WOODRUFF: These days, Danielle Allen is on a mission criss-crossing the country to talk about how our democracy isn't doing what it was designed to do, and needs radical change.
ALLEN (speaking on stage): We have to redesign our institutions so that they are responsive and accountable at the same time that we are also reconnecting people to their own civic experience, power and responsibility.
WOODRUFF: A political theorist at Harvard, Allen was pushed into action by what she calls "red alerts" -- single-digit approval ratings for Congress, record distrust of the federal government, declining voter participation, falling support for democracy among younger generations, and a very personal sense of frustration with government inaction.
ALLEN (speaking with PBS's Judy Woodruff): I lost my youngest cousin, Michael, shot and killed, and his life journey is a really -- was a difficult one, and is a hard story. He spent about 12 years in prison, and then was shot and killed by somebody that he had met while he was in prison. And losing Michael was a real sort of wakeup call moment for me. So my first effort was to dig into specific policy domains. For example, criminal justice reform. But I soon realized that even where we had bipartisan solutions, we couldn't get them through, especially at the federal level, because of government's dysfunction.
WOODRUFF: From 2018 to 2020, she co-chaired a bipartisan commission for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that produced "Our Common Purpose," a report detailing 31 recommendations on how to reinvent American democracy in the 21st century. They included an 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices; a constitutional amendment on campaign finance laws, holding federal elections on Veterans' Day, a holiday; and dramatically expanding the House of Representatives. To do that, Allen adds, she would end partisan primaries. And, a personal note, I served on that commission, but did not advocate for any policy changes.
ALLEN (speaking on stage): Our constitutional democracy is, in effect, a house that our forefathers and foremothers have built and that we have inherited and live in. Doesn't exactly fit all of our needs in the 21st century.
1. supports drug legalization from December 17, 2017, PBS NewsHour interview
Really digging into this led me to change my position on drug policy. So it's turned me into a person who thinks the war on drugs are at the deep root heart of our problems. I think of the issue actually as a bit like family secrets. One of Michael's challenges was that the people around him who loved him didn't share enough. We didn't talk enough and get the fragments that we all understood his trouble on the table in order to help him. And I think our society faces a similar thing with the war on drugs. It pushes so much activity into secrecy that we can't actually address the trouble that young people are having. And I think we need to legalize marijuana and actually even consider decriminalizing cocaine and heroine. Decriminalizing is not legalization -- that's an important distinction. But I do think we have to consider that as a way of trying to cure the society -- give us a chance for being frank and honest with each other.
You changed your feeling about this?
Yes, yes, I mean, so, I mean, I've been concerned about the war on drugs for a long time and the way it's been a driver of mass incarceration, but I was always a little bit twixt and between. Drugs are obviously a terrible thing. They do terrible things to people. But the more they dug into this, the more convinced I became that the legislative choices that we made -- starting in the 1970s -- have built the world that we currently inhabit and the problems that confront young people in cities especially
2. thefts and robbery historh
1990 773,900 23,440 23,438 (from 2005 table 1)
1991 825,600 24,700 24,703
1992 882,500 23,760
1993 969,300 24,530 24,526
1994 1,054,700 23,330 23,326
1995 1,125,900 21,610 21,597 21,606
1996 1,181,900 19,650 19,645
1997 1,240,700 18,208 18,209 18,208
1998 1,307,200 16,914 16,914 16,974
1999 1,363,700 15,522 15,533 15,522
2000 1,394,200 15,586 15,517 15,586
2001 1,404,000 16,037 15,980 16,037
2002 1,440,400 16,229 16,204 16,229
2003 1,468,600 16,528 16,503 16,528
2004 1,497,100 16,148 16,137 16,148
2005 1,525,900 16,740 16,692 16,740
2006 1,568,700 17,030 17,034 17,030 17,309
2007 1,596,800 16,929 16,929 16,929 17,128
2008 1,608,300 16,442 (16,465) 16,272 16,442 16,465
2009 1,615,500 15,399 15,241 15,399
2010 1,613,800 14,772 (14,722) 14,748 14,722
2011 1,599,000 14,661 14,612 14,661
2012 1,570,400 14,886 (14,856) 14,827 14,856
2013 1,577,000 14,319 14,196 14,319
2014 1,562,300 14,164 14,249 14,164 ---- 4.4
2015 1,526,600 15,883 15,696 15,883 4.9
2016 1,508,800 17,413 17,250 17,413 5.4
2017 1,489,200 17,294 17,284 17,294 5.3
2018 1,464,400 16,374 16,214 16,374 5.0
2019 1,430,200 16,669 16,425 5.1
2020 1,215,800 21,570 6.5
2021 1,205,100 22,536 6.8
2022 1,230,100 21,156 6.3
2023 18, 406 (est)
Illinois vs Pennsylvania atf:
2019 total recovered successfully traced traced to home state
Illinois 15,486 11,574 5,782 (50.0 percent) ---- (82.4 percent as many as Pennsylvania by number,
62.8 percent as much by percentage)
Pennsylvania 12,174 8,810 7,017 (79.6 percent)
2020
Illinois 19,188 14,792 6,955 (47.0 percent) (78.8 percent as many at Pennsylvania by number,
60.6 percent as much by percentage)
Pennsylvania 15,370 11,386 8,824 (77.5 percent)
&&&&&&&&&&&&
data 2014 tables
data 2015 tables
2019 tables
2020 data w past years
2022 data
by year overall robbery assault
1999 27.4
2000 23.5
2001 2.8 21.2
2002 2.7 (2.2) 27.9 (19.8)
2003 3.0 (2.5) 27.8 (19.3)
2004 2.6 (2.1) 24.2 (18.5)
2005 3.1 (2.6) 24.4 (17.8)
2006 (skipped over?)
2007 2.4 17.3
2008 2.2 16.3
2009 2.1 14.5
2010 2.2 (1.9) 16.0
2011 2.2 19.5 (correction?)
2012 2.8 22.0
2013 2.4 19.6
2014 20.1 2.5 16.5
2015 18.6 2.1 14.8
2016 19.7 1.7 16.9
2017 20.6 2.3 16.9
2018 23.2 2.1 18.4
2019 21.0 1.9 17.4
2020 16.4 1.6 13.7
2021 16.5 1.7 13.6
2022 23.5 2.5 19.1