[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 21, 1994]



                 NATIONAL GANG VIOLENCE PREVENTION WEEK

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, it has become all too clear that 
young people are increasingly the victims and the perpetrators of 
violent crime. The tragedy of Robert Sandifer, an 11-year-old boy in 
Chicago suspected of killing one of his 14-year-old neighbors and then 
murdered by a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old in an apparent gang related 
killing, illustrates the problem. Robert was 8 years old when he was 
first arrested by the police. Although Robert's story is chilling, it 
has sadly become a familiar one. How can a 8-year-old child commit 
murder? How can an 11-year-old child be murdered by other children? 
Most importantly, what can we do to stop this?
  The crime bill signed by President Clinton makes some important 
contributions to the fight against crime. Many of the prevention 
programs in the bill will make an important difference in young 
people's lives. But there is a limit to what the Federal Government can 
achieve in each community. That is why community programs, local 
activism and parental involvement are essential elements of any effort 
to protect young people from violence.
  In Chicago, the groups Parents against Gangs, founded by Betty Major-
Rose and her husband, James Rose, and Broader Urban Involvement and 
Leadership Development have sponsored ``Gang Awareness Week'' for 
several years. Citizens participate in activities designed to raise 
awareness about the problems of gangs and to encourage their 
involvement in efforts to curve gang violence. This year, I sponsored a 
resolution in the Senate to designate the week of September 12, 1994, 
National Gang Violence Prevention Week.
  On Saturday, September 10, President Clinton issued a proclamation 
designating this week National Gang Violence Prevention Week. This week 
will serve to highlight community achievements in the effort to stem 
the tide of youth violence, and to encourage more communities across 
the Nation to join in this important effort. I commend the President 
for his proclamation and Ms. Major-Rose and other community leaders for 
their commitment to this cause.
  Mr. President, I ask that President Clinton's proclamation be entered 
into the Record at this point.
  The proclamation follows:

    A Proclamation--by the President of the United States of America

       Robert Sandifer was 8 years old the first time he was 
     arrested by police. He was 11 years old when he died, a 
     victim, police believe, of a gang-related killing. He was 
     also suspected of killing Shavon Dean, an innocent victim of 
     an earlier gang-related shooting. In Shavon and Robert's 
     hometown, the number of gang homicides has nearly tripled 
     since 1980. And in neighborhoods across America, too many 
     mothers and fathers have experienced the anguish of losing a 
     child to the meanness of the streets. For them and for all of 
     us, it is past time to end the violence.
       At younger and younger ages, boys and girls are turning to 
     gangs. For a child without an involved family, a gang offers 
     a feeling of belonging. For a young person without options 
     for tomorrow, a gang offers a sense of purpose. For all those 
     born in a home cordoned off against danger, with bars on the 
     windows and chains on the doors, life on the streets seems 
     all too often a taste of freedom they have never known. But 
     American freedom is better than that. We know this. We see 
     freedom at work every day in the determined faces of parents 
     striving to make a better life for themselves and their 
     children. And we see it every day in big cities and small 
     towns across the country as Americans come together to put 
     the spirit of community to work.
       Confronted with the horror of children planning their own 
     funerals, our Nation has begun planning for the future. Our 
     first, best hope is in the common cause of those around us. A 
     community that shares life's experiences can be an important 
     source of strength and understanding in a world that seems 
     filled with growing violence and diminishing hope. Families 
     and communities are coming together across the country to 
     bring hope to even our most troubled youth. In Birmingham, 
     Alabama, where police officers are sponsoring athletic teams 
     and tutoring programs in 52 neighborhoods, youth crime has 
     dropped by 30 percent. In Los Angeles, teachers and sheriffs 
     are working in teams to show kids alternative methods of 
     resolving conflicts, encouraging them to develop a sense of 
     self-worth apart from gangs. The 1994 crime bill seeks to 
     provide grassroots programs like these the resources they 
     need to push forward in their efforts and to succeed in their 
     fight.
       In an invaluable victory for citizens across the country, 
     the Congress passed, and I will soon sign, a crime bill that 
     is designed to save the lives of children like Shavon and 
     Robert. This path-breaking legislation will punish hardened 
     young criminals by requiring stronger penalties, and it will 
     expand the use of community boot camps, drug courts, and 
     other alternative sanctions to stop first-time offenders from 
     beginning a lifetime of crime. It bans 19 of the deadliest 
     assault weapons, and it goes a long way toward keeping guns 
     out of the hands of juveniles. With strong measures of 
     discipline and training, drug treatment and education, this 
     bill takes on the sickness of gangs and drugs and gives our 
     young people a new chance at life. Ours is important work: It 
     is about trying to save a generation of children and to 
     secure the future life of a country. It is a job we can 
     surely do.
       Ours remains the greatest Nation the world has ever known 
     because we have not shied away from challenges. Rather, we 
     have consistently sought to surmount them. The problem of 
     gang violence is among the most profound we as a people have 
     ever faced. We must respect our young people enough to give 
     them a positive choice for the future. We must take 
     responsibility for teaching them to choose what is right. The 
     solutions are within our reach. The power to change America 
     is within ourselves. Together, we must work to redeem the 
     promise that every young life holds.
       Now, therefore, I William J. Clinton, President of the 
     United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested 
     in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do 
     hereby proclaim the week of September 12 through September 
     16, 1994, as ``National Gang Violence Prevention Week.'' I 
     call upon the people of the United States to observe this 
     week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
       In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth 
     day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred 
     and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States 
     of America the two hundred and nineteenth.

     William J. Clinton.

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