[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 14, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S5001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO CHUCK LOWE

  Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, America is a nation that has a 
fascination with pop culture, especially the movies and television, and 
individuals often form their opinions about issues based on what they 
see on screens in their living room or in a theater. Unfortunately, 
this practice often leads to misimpressions about the facts of life. 
Take for example organized crime. So often in movies and television 
shows, those who are involved in organized crime are depicted as sharp 
dressed and honorable men who simply choose to make their money and 
live their lives outside the law. One cannot help but have a 
romanticized and idealized notion of what it is like to be a wiseguy.
  To those of us who understand and study such issues, we know that 
nothing could be further from the truth. The real faces of organized 
crime are the heartless killers and goons who put a stranglehold on 
trucking, rackets, and unions, they are not manicured, honorable men; 
they are the outlaw bikers who peddle methamphetamines and dabble in 
white slavery, they are not fun loving rebels who just want to ride 
motorcycles; they are the gangs from our cities' ghettos who wholesale 
crack and terrorize neighborhoods with their indiscriminate violence, 
they are not misunderstood youths; and, they are the ``new mafias'' 
from places such as Russia, Mexico, and Vietnam, men and women who 
prefer intimidation and criminal enterprise to hard work, unlike their 
honest immigrant peers who are fighting to realize the American dream. 
Organized crime is about as an ideal lifestyle as having a terminal 
disease, and it is just as deadly and destructive. Simply put, in a 
nation of laws, there is no room to tolerate organizations whose sole 
reason for existence is to commit crime and victimize hard working and 
honest Americans.
  In the last 30 years, the Federal Government has begun to take the 
fight against organized crime right to the enemy's doorstep. Through 
statutes such as RICO, the allocation of resources dedicated to 
combating organized crime, and intensified cooperation between law 
enforcement agencies, we are making real progress in subduing our 
Nation's criminal classes. Today, I want to take a moment to salute an 
individual who has devoted his life to this fight, Mr. Charles D. 
``Chuck'' Lowe, who serves as the Director of the Regional Organized 
Crime Information Center.
  Chuck Lowe began his career in law enforcement back in the late 
1950's as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard's New York City Port 
Security Unit. In that position, he worked closely with the New York 
Police Department, the Customs Service, and the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service. Certainly it must have been his time fighting 
crime in the city that never sleeps where he found the career he loved 
and he learned the importance and effectiveness of cooperation between 
enforcement agencies. In the years following Chuck's enlistment in the 
Coast Guard, he served ably and capably with the Washington, DC, 
Metropolitan Police Department as a plainclothes detective, and then 
with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. During his 22-year 
career with BATF, Chuck was involved in a multitude of interesting and 
dangerous cases, he helped to protect the President, and he held a 
number of key leadership positions within that agency. His efforts as a 
Federal agent earned him numerous citations and recognitions, including 
awards for superior performance, case preparation, and training.
  In 1988, Chuck left the BATF to join the Regional Organized Crime 
Information Center [ROCIC], an organization committed to collecting, 
evaluating, analyzing, and disseminating information concerning 
whitecollar career criminals, narcotics violators, gangs, and other 
violent offenders. As he had done in his previous assignments, Chuck 
immediately threw himself into his work, and it was a surprise to no 
one when he became the Director of ROCIC in 1991, only 3 short years 
after joining the organization.
  Under his supervision, ROCIC has grown tremendously, more than 
tripling the number of agencies it serves, and it has greatly expanded 
the services it provides to its 1,157 members. His efforts to modernize 
ROCIC have improved morale at that agency, made it more efficient, and 
has given law enforcement officers a potent tool with which to 
coordinate their efforts against organized crime.
  Mr. President, it is with regret that I report that Chuck Lowe has 
decided to hang up his badge and gun and retire from his distinguished 
career as a law enforcement leader. In his more than 30-year career as 
a cop, Chuck has contributed much to keeping our streets safe. We are 
proud of the work he has done and we wish him well in the years to 
come.

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