[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I want to respond to the Senator from 
Texas, and I want to try to put this crime bill and what happened in 
its proper perspective.
  I think everybody knows how much money has been spent by the National 
Rifle Association and by the gun lobby in the last days to prevent 
Americans from getting a crime bill.
  When my friend from Texas comes to the floor and suggests to 
Americans that we did not get a crime bill because it has pork in it, 
or because somehow there is a provision that is going to let people out 
of jail free, that is the same kind of phoniness or facade or hiding of 
reality that Americans are actually sick of. They are fed up with the 
Washington that makes pretenses about what is really happening in this 
country:
  I say $1.8 billion over 6 years to prevent violence against women, to 
help police and prosecutors in looking at specific violence that is 
conducted against women is not pork. It seems to me that a youth league 
in the inner-city, whether it is New York, or Washington, or Boston, to 
help kids have something to do at night other than walking around 
toting guns or watching drug dealers, drug deal, or watching pimps be 
the only role model of the community, is money well spent.
  All you have to do is look at programs that are models all across 
this country to find out how it makes a difference in those kids' 
lives.
  I was recently in Lynn, MA, talking to 16-year olds that have nothing 
to look forward to in the future, have no parents, nobody giving them a 
sense of possibilities, and the only programs that make a difference 
for them are boys' or girls' clubs, or something in the community that 
gives them an alternative in life.
  This bill, finally, for the first time--and I say this as an ex-
prosecutor--for the first time in 20 years has a real approach to 
trying to deal with some of the problems. Sure, we can build prisons. 
We can put cops on the streets. But if all you want to do is have a 
whole new supply of kids to fill the prisons or become the object of 
cop pursuit, then you can continue to ignore young people in America.
  I do not consider money for boys' and girls' clubs--when you go to 
any city in America and you find only 10 or 20 percent of the kids in 
the community have access to those clubs, it seems to me that labeling 
$30 million to that as pork is not to understand the concerns of 
Americans.
  What about $630 million for community schools? I have gone from 
school community to school community, and the people are telling me, 
why does the school shut at 2:30 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon?
  Kids cannot even use school facilities in America in the afternoon 
because we are unwilling to pay a custodian to be there. Is that pork?
  Let me tell you, Madam President, we have violent criminals in 
America who cannot go to jail today or who are let out early because 
beds are being taken up by nonviolent first-time offenders.
  There was a graduate of college who drove around this country in his 
Volkswagen. He was following the Grateful Dead. He got to one city and 
a Federal narcotics officer was urging him, saying, ``Look, I need to 
buy some drugs.'' The kid never sold drugs, but he had a $400 bill on 
his Volkswagen and he needed it to go back to school, and he sold some, 
sold it to them. Whacko--he is in jail for the first time in his life, 
a first-time offender, a nonviolent offender.
  You tell me that is the kind of person you are worried about in a 
crime bill that you want to put away for 10 years, when a violent 
offender is let out by a judge because we do not have a bed to put him 
in?
  You look at the statistics across this country for prison after 
prison--150 percent capacity, 160 percent capacity.
  The Republicans are here, or some are here, talking about how this is 
a get-out-of-jail-free program. This is a put-the-people-in-jail-who-
belong-in-jail program and it is a way of immediately responding to 
concerns of Americans about violence.
  If we do not turn around and start to deal with the problems of kids 
in America, we are going to fill up our prisons endlessly. And if we do 
not have the money to build those prisons and for the cops on the 
street, we are not going to restore basic order in America. That is 
what this crime bill would have done.
  Instead, what do you have? You have the greatest advertisement in a 
long time for campaign finance reform, because you have this 
extraordinary flow of money coming into people's campaign coffers and a 
distortion of the whole political process by moneyed interests who 
prevent the real concerns of Americans from being met.
  No wonder people in this country are fed up with Washington. They are 
fed up because they understand what they want done. And instead, we get 
things being labeled, and gamey little political phrases thrown around. 
And, in the end, what happens? Another kid picks up a gun and shoots 
somebody, and America goes on about its business.
  It is extraordinary to me that this bill, the first significant 
effort to deal with crime in 20 years, did not pass because some people 
want the weapons of war--assault weapons--on the streets of America. We 
had better get about the business in the next few days of doing the 
business of America, and pass this crime bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.

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