Like him or not, former President Bill Clinton is an excellent analyst of the American political scene.

Last week confronted by Black Lives Matter militants in Philadelphia, who say the criminal justice system is racist, Mr. Clinton fought back.

BILL CLINTON: “I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out on the street to murder other African-American children.”

Mr. Clinton is absolutely correct, the vicious drug world results in millions of Americans being harmed.

Dope pushers and gang members should be incarcerated.

But after saying what he said, Mr. Clinton came under pressure from his own party and may have buckled.

BILL CLINTON: “I did something yesterday in Philadelphia, I almost want to apologize for it, but I want to use it as an example of the danger threatening our country.” 

So why would Bill Clinton almost want to apologize?  What he is saying is true.

Here are the facts:

According to FBI data, between 1960 and 1990 the rate of violent crime in the USA surged by 350%.

Violence in cities like New York, Detroit, Los Angeles was out of control.

And people in the poor neighborhoods took the brunt of it.

In 1970 convicted murderers in America served a median sentence of just 3.5 years for murder.

That was insane, so Bill Clinton and both political parties finally did something about it: They passed tough new sentencing laws.

The result: Violent crime has dropped drastically since the mid-1990s to historic lows today.

That is the truth, tough sentencing for violent offenders drove crime down in the USA big time.

Now the race question.

Again, according to FBI data, from 1976 to 1995 black Americans were identified by police as committing more than half of the homicides in the USA.

African-Americans make up 13% of the population.

In addition, a national crime victims survey reported that blacks committed robberies at a rate of 60%.

Again, the black community is just 13% of the population.

So what's the beef if black Americans are committing crimes out-of-proportion to other ethnic groups, why is there a racial component to their presence in prison?

Also, forget about the drug myth.

Right now in federal penitentiaries 99.5% of drug-convicted inmates are traffickers, not users.

99.5% percent.

So the question becomes, why is the Democratic Party caving into propaganda put out by radical groups like Black Lives Matter?

It is clear that tough sentencing reform spearheaded by both parties and signed by Bill Clinton saved perhaps millions of American lives.

Yet the entire criminal justice system is now being branded as racist and oppressive.

Disgraceful.

And that's the memo.