“Democrats have managed to take control of crime narratives before. Bill Clinton seized on the issue when he ran for president in 1992, which led to the passage of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. That legislation had sweeping implications: While it authorized new spending for police officers, approved the assault weapons ban and expanded the federal death penalty, it was also blamed for increasing mass incarceration in the United States. How much Democrats shifted on crime was evident when Hillary Clinton ran for president in 2016 and her support of the 1994 crime bill was one of the biggest criticisms of her from the left, leading to several protests at her events. Almost a decade later, Democrats are still looking for the right message. But it seems top Democrats hope to balance the party’s tough-on-crime image of the ’90s with a more nuanced approach over three decades later.”