Midnight basketball

Midnight basketball was a 1990s initiative to curb inner-city crime in the United States by keeping urban youth off the streets and engaging them with alternatives to drugs and crime. It was originally founded by G. Van Standifer in the late 1980's in the United States.

In 1994, Bill Clinton pushed for an anti-crime bill that would lead to 100,000 more police officers as well as a number of programs intended to "deter crime where it starts" by providing "community activities like midnight basketball".^[1] The plan was widely lampooned by conservatives such as House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, who cited midnight basketball as an ineffective and wasteful use of federal funds.^[2] Some, such as Rush Limbaugh, even called the proposal racist, given the largely African American populations targeted by the program.^[3] Midnight basketball was not a proposal unique to the Democrats as it was one of George H. W. Bush's "Thousand points of light".^[4]

References

1. ^ Clinton, Bill (1994-06-18). Presidential Radio Address (Speech). Radio. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Presidential_Radio_Address_-_18_June_1994. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
2. ^ http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050124&s=crowley012405
3. ^ Franken, Al (2000-06-01). "Block That Rush!". The Nation. Archived from the original on 2007-10-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20071016192640/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000619/franken. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
4. ^ George H. W. Bush (April 12, 1991). Remarks on Signing the Points of Light National Celebration of Community Service Proclamation in Glenarden, Maryland (Speech). Glenarden Community Center, Maryland. http://web.archive.org/web/20040822200423/http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1991/91041200.html. Retrieved 2008-04-07.