[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 17, 1995)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 26339-26340]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-12290]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 95 / Wednesday, May 17, 1995 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 26339]]
Proclamation 6800 of May 15, 1995
Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 1995
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Each year, we pause to remember and to honor the brave
men and women whose heartfelt commitment to the law and
to their fellow citizens cost them their lives. During
1994, we lost 56 law enforcement officers to on-duty
accidents. Seventy-six officers--72 State and local
police and four Federal agents--were murdered. Thirty-
three of these officers were wearing body armor when
they were killed. All but one were killed with a
firearm. Three were gunned down inside police
headquarters in our Nation's capital.
America's law enforcement officers face extraordinary
risks--breaking up a drug ring, apprehending a
fugitive, responding to an incident of domestic
violence, even making a traffic stop. Since the first
recorded police death in this country in 1794, more
than 13,500 law enforcement officers have been killed
in the line of duty. On average, more than 62,000
officers are assaulted and some 20,000 are injured each
year.
Tragically, the dangers of law enforcement service are
increasing. From 1960 to 1993, the number of violent
crimes in America increased 567 percent. In the past 10
years, it increased 51 percent. During 1993, more than
1.9 million violent crimes--murders, rapes, robberies,
and assaults--were reported to police. And our police
responded.
Despite the rising tide of crime, good and brave men
and women continue to join the ranks of law
enforcement. Today, more than 600,000 sworn officers
work every day to preserve the peace and improve the
safety of cities and towns across America. These heroic
individuals and their fallen colleagues come from many
different backgrounds. But they are linked by a common
faith--that freedom is worth defending and that justice
shall prevail. For those who died to uphold these
ideals and for those who still stand to protect them,
we salute America's law enforcement officials.
The Congress, by a joint resolution approved October 1,
1962 (76 Stat. 676), has authorized and requested the
President to designate May 15 of each year as ``Peace
Officers Memorial Day,'' and the week in which it falls
as ``Police Week,'' and by Public Law 103-322 (36
U.S.C. 175) has requested that the flag be flown at
half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 15,
1995, as Peace Officers Memorial Day, and May 14-20,
1995, as Police Week. I call upon the people of the
United States to observe this occasion with appropriate
programs, ceremonies, and activities. I also request
the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, and the appropriate officials of all
units of government, to direct that the flag be flown
at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day on all
buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the
United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction
and control, and I invite the people of the United
States to display the flag at half-staff from their
homes on that day.
[[Page 26340]] IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set
my hand this fifteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and nineteenth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 95-12290
Filed 5-15-95; 2:38 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P