[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 71 (Thursday, June 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    REMARKS OF THOMAS A. CONSTANTINE

                                 ______


                        HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 8, 1994

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, I ask that the remarks of Thomas A. 
Constantine on the occasion of his swearing in as the new Administrator 
of the Drug Enforcement Administration be entered into the Record. Mr. 
Constantine has had a distinguished career as a first rate leader in 
the law enforcement community. His observations about drugs, violence, 
and their effects on our society are extraordinarily perceptive, and I 
believe will be of interest and value to us all.

                    Remarks by Thomas A. Constantine

       Good morning, everyone.
       Attorney General Reno, I thank you for your strong support 
     and wise counsel over the last few months. It is indeed an 
     honor to be on your team.
       To my wife, Ruth--and to my family--your unwavering support 
     over the past several months has meant more to me than you 
     can ever know. You gave me the strength to accept the 
     challenge of leading the DEA, and an opportunity to help 
     bring an end to the tyranny of drugs and violence that 
     plagues our nation.
       I am also honored by the presence of so many of my former 
     colleagues and life-long friends from the New York State 
     Police and the IACP. Today, I'm proud that we have with us 
     five past IACP Presidents, the current President, and five 
     future Presidents.
       I feel extremely grateful to Steve Greene, a DEA Special 
     Agent who so ably served as Acting Administrator--and a 
     friend who has helped me tremendously during this transition 
     period.
       To DEA personnel from across the country and here at 
     Headquarters, I thank you for extending helping hands and for 
     making me feel like an instant member of the DEA family.
       I especially want to recognize the family of Joe Aversa, 
     who I mentioned at the time of my nomination. Joey was an 
     all-American boy, and an outstanding trooper with the New 
     York State Police.
       Four years ago, while assigned to the DEA Task Force in New 
     York City, Joey Aversa bravely gave his life trying to make 
     the streets of America safer.
       Joe was very important to the New York State Police, to DEA 
     and to me personally.
       His wife, Eileen, is here with us today, as is his father 
     Vincent. And, I'm proud to announce that on Monday of this 
     week, Eileen Aversa was sworn in as a New York State Trooper.
       I'd also like to recognize Jim Rodriguez, the prosecutor of 
     Joe's murderers and Judge Ed Torres, who presided over the 
     trial.
       And, I thank all of you for sharing this very special day 
     with me and my family.


                          a look to the future

       In my remarks at my nomination, I focused on the events in 
     my life that had brought me to that nomination ceremony. 
     Today, I want to take the occasion of my swearing-in to look 
     toward the future.
       As I officially accept the duties of DEA Administrator, I 
     find myself reflecting on the awesome responsibilities of 
     this agency and our Special Agents around the world. Seeing 
     my family--especially my grandchildren--gathered here in the 
     front row, is a very personal reminder of the 
     responsibilities I undertake today.
       It is into the hands of these children--and children just 
     like them all across America--that you and I will one day 
     entrust this great country. It is our responsibility to leave 
     them with a legacy worthy of their hopes and dreams.


                          violence in america

       As I see it, nothing threatens their bright future more 
     than the epidemic of violent crime that has swept across this 
     great land with the fury of a prairie fire--leaving in its 
     wake shattered lives and broken dreams.
       We shudder in horror and shake our heads in disbelief at 
     the violence in places like the Middle East, Bosnia, and 
     South Africa. But the sad truth is that here at home, entire 
     neighborhoods have fallen victim to violence every bit as 
     brutal and devastating as that in those far away countries. 
     In neighborhood after neighborhood, decent, law abiding 
     citizens have become hostages in their own homes.
       Each day brings headlines of increasingly vicious crimes. 
     The level of violence we are witnessing all across this 
     nation is unprecedented, and it tears at the moral fabric of 
     our society and threatens our American way of life.
       Two hundred years ago, our ancestors laid down their lives 
     to establish the freedoms we enjoy today. One of the most 
     basic of those freedoms is the right to live free from fear 
     and violence. Did our ancestors fight for liberty only to 
     have it squandered in crack houses and back alleys?
       The statistics surrounding violent crime in America are 
     shocking. Since 1960, when I began my career in law 
     enforcement, violent crime in this country has increased 
     almost 400 percent. It is certainly no coincidence that this 
     dramatic increase in violence in the past three decades 
     corresponds with the onset of America's drug culture in the 
     Sixties.
       It is also no coincidence that crime and violence soared in 
     the mid-1980's with the introduction of crack, a less 
     expensive and more addictive form of cocaine.
       Drugs once were regarded as a singular issue. Now, drugs 
     are inextricably linked with the violence that is terrorizing 
     our country. We know that drug users commit a 
     disproportionately high percentage of violent crimes. Our 
     most recent national surveys show that over one third of all 
     violent acts committed and almost half of all homicides are 
     drug-related.


                  effects of violence on our children

       One of the most worrisome facts to me is the impact that 
     drugs and violence are having on our children. Increasingly, 
     children are both the perpetrators--and the victims--of 
     violent crime.
       Younger and younger kids are committing more and more 
     serious crimes. Among male teens, we have seen the arrest 
     rate for homicide more than double.
       We now have a generation of young people who have grown up 
     to the sounds of gunshots and sirens. Children who walk to 
     school on blood splattered sidewalks, past buildings scarred 
     by gunshot blasts. Children who sleep in bathtubs to avoid 
     the stray bullets of drug dealers. Children who aren't 
     allowed to play in parks because of crack vials and syringes. 
     Children who can't even walk to the corner store for fear of 
     being assaulted--or even killed--by gang violence.
       The drug culture has inflicted upon this nation a whole new 
     set of pathologies that were unimaginable just 10 years ago--
     drive-by-shootings, carjackings, gang warfare, and perhaps 
     the one that tugs at our hearts the most, the thousands of 
     drug-damaged crack babies in hospitals all across this 
     country, many of whom were abandoned at birth by their drug-
     addicted mothers.
       Many Americans have become numbed to the human carnage that 
     has inundated our nightly news and our morning newspapers. 
     This ``numbness'' is probably one of the greatest dangers of 
     all. My good friend, Judge Edwin Torres of the New York State 
     Supreme Court, put this in perspective when he said: ``A 
     society that loses its sense of outrage is doomed to 
     extinction.''
       Our battle against drugs and the crime and violence they 
     spawn is far from over. Last year, we received the 
     distressing news that drug use among our children--even our 
     youngest teenagers--has increased.
       Today, I believe Americans are fed up with drugs and 
     violence. They are tired of living in fear. The are ready to 
     roll up their sleeves and set about making our neighborhoods, 
     our communities, and ultimately our nation, a safer and 
     healthier place for all of us to live.


     dea's role in reducing violence by attaching drug trafficking

       I firmly believe that DEA, as the lead drug law enforcement 
     agency in the world, can play a major role in reducing the 
     levels of violence in our country by identifying and 
     dismantling drug trafficking organizations around the globe.
       We are a small agency with a large and complicated mission. 
     Our ranks number slightly more than 7,000 people--less than 
     half of which are Special Agents. But, we are the drug 
     experts.
       DEA has the investigative expertise, the know how, and the 
     professionalism to match wits with the most ruthless and 
     resourceful drug traffickers. And, I intend to see DEA use 
     this expertise and our proactive approach to make a 
     difference in violent crime.


                 targeting international organizations

       I have always believed that America must bear a portion of 
     the blame for the drug violence, both here at home and in 
     drug source countries. Our insatiable appetite for narcotics 
     has created a thriving and vicious international business for 
     drug traffickers around the world.
       To satisfy our demands, ruthless international drug cartels 
     supply the products--and join with American criminals--to 
     establish violent organizations within our borders. Much of 
     the violence we see in our neighborhoods and streets is 
     directly linked to the drugs that are inflicting violence on 
     South American and Asian nations, as well.
       For every child in Chicago, Detroit or New York who is 
     caught in the crossfire of rival gangs, a cartel leader grows 
     rich off the misery of America's inner-cities. For every 
     mother who has lost a child to drugs, another mother in Cali, 
     Colombia, gives a son over to the drug lords who run the 
     cocaine trade. And any profits made by the cartels serves 
     only to create more misery in both the United States and 
     abroad. It's a vicious cycle.
       As these worldwide drug organizations grow wealthier and 
     more powerful from the profits of drugs sold in the U.S., 
     they undermine and threaten democratic, governmental, and 
     economic institutions around the globe.
       Nations around the world have suffered greatly from the 
     drug-related violence brought about by these drug 
     traffickers, and thousands of heroic public servants have 
     paid a tremendous human price fighting against these criminal 
     drug organizations.


                    targeting domestic organizations

       While we continue to cooperate and work with our 
     international partners to destroy these drug organizations 
     worldwide, we are also committed to dismantling the drug 
     networks that operate within our borders.
       As we are all aware, the United States has its own ``home 
     grown'' variety of organized drug gangs that ruthlessly 
     control their turf and set up networks all across this land.
       Daily, we are identifying and linking organizations that 
     have storage, transportation, and distribution elements 
     spread across the nation.
       We have discovered that what happens in one region is 
     directly linked to another. And, we are using cooperative 
     investigations to insure that we dismantle the entire 
     organization and eliminate its future ability to deliver 
     drugs to our neighborhood streets.


                         cooperation's the key

       But, DEA cannot do this alone. We must work more closely 
     with our state and local law enforcement partners, as well as 
     our sister Federal agencies. In the serious business of drug 
     control, I see absolutely no room for turf wars, 
     jurisdictional conflicts, and ego building.
       Cooperative law enforcement can benefit us all by 
     maximizing our effective use of the resources we must share.
       DEA, along with the FBI, INS, and the Marshals Service, is 
     working with U.S. Attorneys to develop strategies targeting 
     violent crime. DEA's commanders in the field--the SACs--are 
     already working together with Chiefs of Police, Sheriffs, and 
     Superintendents around the nation to pinpoint those 
     individuals and organizations who pose the greatest violence 
     and drug threats to this country.


                        cooperative task forces

       In many cities and towns, the problem of drugs and violence 
     has outstripped the resources of the police to handle it. And 
     there are those false prophets among us who see the drug 
     problem as so insurmountable that they are ready to throw up 
     their hands in surrender. These are the same people who are 
     calling for the legalization of drugs, which they see as a 
     quick and simple solution to the drug problem.
       Legalization is a disastrous proposition. By legalizing 
     drugs, we are effectively writing off many segments of our 
     society, particularly the children of the inner cities. Far 
     too often, it is the poorest and most helpless who pay the 
     largest price for these social experiments and misguided 
     policies.
       Law enforcement's answer is not to throw up our hands in 
     desperation--but to join hands in cooperation--to work 
     together to relieve our cities and towns of drugs and violent 
     crime.
       In several American cities, cooperative task forces have 
     been so successful that their investigations have been 
     responsible for dramatic decreases in drug-related violence. 
     For example, when a task force made up of Federal, state, and 
     local law enforcement, targeted crack dealers in Schenectady, 
     New York, violent crime in that city fell by 37 percent.
       In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when a major crack 
     organization was dismantled by the work of a cooperative task 
     force, the 911 calls from neighborhoods under siege fell by 
     95 percent.
       And, in New Haven, Connecticut, as a result of task force 
     enforcement actions against drug gangs, the murder rate in 
     that city dropped by almost 50 percent, while the rates 
     continued to climb in neighboring cities.
       The success of these task forces illustrates the kind of 
     cooperation and focus we must have to bring peace to the 
     streets of our nation. I pledge that DEA will become more 
     involved and will continue to work along side our state and 
     local partners to make this happen.


                               conclusion

       This morning, as I officially accept my new duties as 
     Administrator of DEA, I again ask for the help and support of 
     everyone in DEA, and my law enforcement colleagues, both here 
     in Washington and in the field.
       I have much to learn about Federal government and 
     international relations, but I will do the very best I can. I 
     would not be here if I didn't believe that we could win this 
     battle over drugs and violence.
       We have important work ahead of us. And, we must continue 
     the fight until we've won, because the future of our children 
     hangs in the balance.
       What better--and more important--legacy can we pass on to 
     our children than a world cleansed of drugs and drug 
     trafficking, a world where the rule of law dominates--not the 
     rule of the lawless, a world where neighborhoods live 
     together--free from the fear and intimidation of drug 
     traffickers.
       I can think of no task more important than this--and I 
     accept that challenge this morning.

                          ____________________