Who launched mass incarceration and militarized policing? A progressive hero

The “tough on crime” approach to policing and criminal justice wasn’t driven by Republicans alone ­— it began as a liberal idea.

It didn’t start among liberal policy wonks, either; its beginnings lead to Lyndon Johnson, a president revered among progressive Democrats.

Historian Elizabeth Hinton “argues that the current regime of militarized policing and mass incarceration, which has done so much to suppress the opportunities for African Americans, was set into motion by a liberal hero — Lyndon Johnson, the same president who signed the Civil Rights Act and who oversaw the greatest expansion of social services since the New Deal,” according to The Washington Post.

It’s easy to lambast political opponents for current problems. It’s much harder to confront historical fact and accept deeper, bipartisan blame.

Responding to race riots and “demographic forces” that sent African Americans to northern cities for work and an escape from southern racism, LBJ saw “tough policing” in black communities as part of the War on Poverty.