[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 176 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 47057-47058]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-22846]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: September 13, 1994]


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Part VII





The President





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Proclamation 6717--
National Gang Violence Prevention Week, 1994


                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 176
Tuesday, September 13, 1994

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Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6717 of September 10, 1994

 
National Gang Violence Prevention Week, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                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.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-22846
Filed 9-12-94; 11:41 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P


                Editorial note: For the President's remarks deploring 
                gang violence during his radio address, see issue 37 of 
                the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.