[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 17, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO COMBAT RAMPANT GANG VIOLENCE

                                 ______


                            HON. ROB PORTMAN

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 17, 1994

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to help 
law enforcement officers combat rampant gang violence that is 
threatening our communities all across America. Gang violence is not 
only a problem plaguing major cities; it is starting to creep into 
smaller communities.
  In the last few days in my own congressional district, a carload of 
young men came into the small city of Norwood, OH, assaulted a group of 
teenagers and ended up shooting to death a 20-year-old boy in cold 
blood with a .38 caliber handgun. According to a Norwood police officer 
who is investigating the matter, the gang members expressed absolutely 
no remorse for what they had done.
  Unfortunately, this was not a bizarre and rare occurrence in our 
area. Local law enforcement officers said that it was indicative of a 
trend showing an escalation in gang violence.
  What, if anything, can we do about it? As criminologist James Q. 
Wilson stated in his thoughtful article published in the New York Times 
magazine recently:

       Our goal should not be the disarming of law-abiding 
     citizens. It should be to reduce the number of people who 
     carry guns unlawfully, especially in places--on streets * * 
     *--where the mere presence of a gun can increase the hazards 
     we all face. The most effective way to reduce illegal gun-
     carrying is to encourage the police to take guns away from 
     people who carry them without a permit. This means 
     encouraging the police to make street frisks.

  Wilson is right. We ought to target the criminal part of the 
population, not the law-abiding citizens. We should do all we can to 
target the 6 percent of the offenders who commit approximately 70 
percent of the crimes in this country.
  There are many ways to promote gun frisks, but one way is to pass 
Federal legislation that reduces the likelihood that cases will be 
thrown out on constitutional grounds.
  The legislation I introduce today clarifies that it shall constitute 
a ``reasonable suspicion,'' the constitutional standard police officers 
must meet in order to perform a stop and frisk, that a police officer 
knows or has good reason to believe that the person who is subject to 
that limited stop and frisk actively participates in a criminal street 
gang with knowledge that such gang members engage or have engaged in a 
pattern of criminal gang activity.
  Capt. Thomas Williams, the assistant chief of the Norwood Police 
Department, has already instructed his fellow officers that they must 
begin to perform more pat downs in order to protect the community and 
avoid shootings like the one that occurred this past week. Williams 
also stated:

       Your stop and frisk legislation will assist us and other 
     local police officers in combatting the violence that is 
     threatening our communities. Cops on the beat need all the 
     support they can get. Your bill will help make pat downs of 
     criminal gang members, such as those who shot and assaulted 
     those young kids, routine. The risks involved in performing 
     the pat downs are few and the costs of not doing so are high.

  This legislation will not please everyone, but we believe it helps to 
clarify the application of the ``reasonable suspicion'' standard, 
established in Terry versus Ohio and further refined--often 
inconsistently--in other cases, where criminal gangs are involved. 
Furthermore, those police officers fighting these gangs have told me 
clearly that they would like this additional protection.
  It is time to start taking back our streets--not only in Los Angeles, 
New York, Chicago, and Miami, but in Norwood, OH, too. The crime wave 
that has hit urban America is an extraordinary problem that requires 
creative solutions. If we are truly committed to taking back our 
streets and preserving the peace in our communities, we must start by 
taking illegal guns away from criminals and getting the criminals off 
the streets.
  I urge you to cosponsor this legislation to help prevent the kind of 
violence we saw in Norwood, OH, creep into your communities.

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