    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [December 20, 1993]
    [Pages 2190-2192]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 2190]]

    Teleconference Remarks on Community Policing Grants and an Exchange With
    Reporters
    December 20, 1993

        The President. It's nice to hear all of you. I'm here with the Vice
    President and Attorney General Reno and our Drug Director, Lee Brown, to
    congratulate all of you for working so hard to help make your
    communities and, of course, our country safer again. Today I'm proud to
    announce that the six of you on this phone, along with the leaders of 68
    other cities and towns all across the country, will receive the first
    grants to put more police on the street and expand community policing.
        The Justice Department received applications from more than 1,000
    communities across our Nation, and the proposals we got for community
    policing from your police departments were truly outstanding. I know
    these grants are simply a downpayment on our pledge to put 100,000 new
    police officers on the streets. It's just the beginning. As soon as
    Congress comes back in 1994, I want them to send me a crime bill that
    finishes that job and puts 100,000 more police on the street, expands
    boot camps and drug courts like the one the Attorney General started in
    Miami, gets handguns out of the hands of minors, and bans assault
    weapons.
        Earlier this month, as all of you know, I signed the Brady bill
    which broke 7 years of gridlock on this issue. And we just can't afford
    to wait any longer for the crime bill. In the meanwhile I'm excited
    about what you're doing because we know community policing works. It
    worked for our Drug Director, Lee Brown, in Houston and New York, and
    it's working all across the country.
        So I want to just thank all of you very much and say that I wish I
    could be there with you today. I wish I could see your police officers.
    And I hope you'll tell them all that help is on the way, and we'll do
    our best to be there for you, to be good partners with you. And I know
    I'm speaking for the Vice President, the Attorney General, and Lee Brown
    in saying we'll stay after this until the job is done.

    [At this point, the President introduced Mayor Richard Riordan of Los
    Angeles, CA, Mayor James Griffin of Buffalo, NY, Mayor Paul Tauer of
    Aurora, CO, Mayor Sharpe James of Newark, NJ, Mayor Nelson Wolff of San
    Antonio, TX, and Mayor Gary Loster of Saginaw, MI, and each made brief
    remarks.]

        The President. Thank you very much, Mayor.
        I want to ask the Attorney General now to say a word, because the
    Justice Department, as you know, managed the process by which your
    cities were selected. I think they did a very good job, and so I'd like
    to call on her and let her say a few words.
        Attorney General Reno. Mayors, I just want to thank you. Your
    applications were so impressive. They indicate just what can be done
    with community policing, how it can both prevent crime and identify the
    real bad guys who need to be put away. And this is the first round;
    there are more to come. And we look forward to working with you in a
    real, true partnership.
        Merry Christmas.
        The President. I'm going to let Lee Brown say a word to you now. You
    know, he started a community policing program in New York City. And I
    don't know if you saw it, but last week there was a wonderful cover
    story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine about a police officer named
    Kevin Jett who works eight square blocks in one of the toughest
    neighborhoods in New York. And the story pointed out that he not only
    arrests criminals but he also prevents a lot of crimes from occurring in
    the first place. And I think that's the emphasis we ought to have here.
    This is not simply a question of catching people who break the law in a
    violent fashion; it's preventing crime.
        So I want Lee to say a word.
        Mr. Brown. Let me congratulate the mayors and certainly the police
    chiefs for being selected. I've experienced community policing in
    Houston and New York; New York, for example, after one year we saw crime
    go down in every major category for the first time in 36 years. I see it
    as not only a better but a smarter and certainly more cost-effective way
    of using police resources.
        So congratulations to all of you, and Merry Christmas.
        The President. In closing, let me say, I know that from Los Angeles
    to Michigan, we've Members of Congress who are actually there today,

    [[Page 2191]]

    as well as in Buffalo and perhaps in some other places. And I really
    thank all of you for your support. Somebody told me that Mayor Riordan
    had the whole southern California delegation there, and if he does, I
    bet he's talking about more than law enforcement. I hear all of the
    movement in the background. I wish you all a happy holiday, and I thank
    you. You know, when you're taking these kind of affirmative actions, the
    President can't do it alone. We've got to have the support of Congress.
    And I really appreciate their presence there.
        And thank you all so much. And congratulations to you and to the 68
    other cities and towns who are in the vanguard of this move to bring
    community policing to our entire Nation.
        Thank you very much.

    Anticrime Legislation

        Q. Do you think you're going to get that bill through?
        The President. Oh, I do, yes.
        Q. The atmosphere has changed, hasn't it?
        The President. It has changed. You know, there may be some
    differences between us and the House on the amount of the bill or
    exactly how it should be spent, but I think there is now a clear
    bipartisan commitment in both Houses for the 100,000 police officers on
    the street, for the drug courts, and for some of the other innovations.
    And so we're very, very hopeful that we can do it.
        I think having the mayors, again, out there in small towns as well
    as the big cities, the Democrats and the Republicans marching arm in
    arm, it's changed the dynamic of this issue in America in a way that I
    think will be very good in helping us to make our people safer.
        Q. Do you think Congress is getting the message at home while
    they're at home?
        The President. Big time. That's our sense, that they're really
    hearing from the people that they just have to have more security on the
    streets, in their schools and communities.

    The Economy

        Q. Mr. President, are you taking too much credit for the growth of
    the economy? There have been stories suggesting that it may not be all
    your doing.
        The President. Well, I saw those stories. I got tickled this
    morning. I took a poll around the staff. We just had a 2-hour meeting on
    the budget, and I said, if the economy were bad who do you think would
    be blamed? [Laughter]
        I'm not so concerned about who gets the credit really. The American
    people get the credit, if they go back to work, if they're becoming more
    competitive, if they're investing their money.
        I do know this: Even going back after the election, from the time we
    announced our deficit reduction plan to the time it was presented, to
    the time it was enacted, to the present day, the steady, disciplined
    drop in interest rates has played a major, major role in helping
    millions of people to refinance their homes and businesses--last year we
    had a 19-year low in delinquencies in home mortgages--and getting all
    this investment for new jobs.
        So I believe our economic policies are stabilizing this country and
    contributing to this recovery. I think a lot of Americans have been
    working for years and years and years to be competitive in the global
    economy, and I think that is to their credit. I mean, we have a private
    sector economy. No person in public life can take credit for it. But if
    we hadn't done what we have done on the economic plan to drive interest
    rates down and to spur reinvestment, I don't think we'd be where we are
    on the economy.
        Q. But every day we read about thousands being laid off.
        The President. Well, it's still a terrible problem. That's why I
    always say we've got a lot more to do.
        The problem that all rich countries are facing now is that
    productivity, which has always been a good thing in the economy--that
    is, fewer people produce more goods and services increases their ability
    to earn more income--that's a problem unless you can sell all the goods
    and services you're producing. If you don't, it keeps unemployment
    higher than it should be, and it depresses wages.
        So that will be our challenge next year. That's why I wanted to get
    NAFTA this year; that's why I wanted to get that GATT trade agreement
    this year; that's why I wanted to try to start a new relationship with
    Japan and the Far East this year, so we would have more customers for
    our goods and services, so we can grow this economy.
        Q. Are you going to have the flexibility to deal with the job
    training issues and retraining, given the budget situation?

    [[Page 2192]]

        The President. Well, I've already spent 2 hours on that today, and I
    expect I'll spend a couple more hours on it. I certainly----
        Q. Can you wrap it up now the budget's over?
        The President. Well, we're not done yet, but we worked hard on that
    today. We're going to keep working. We have a few more days. But the
    retraining issue is important because there have been a lot of news
    stories lately--many of you perhaps have run them--showing that people
    that either have high skill levels or are capable of getting them in a
    hurry have much shorter periods of unemployment and are much more likely
    to get good-paying jobs.
        We still don't have the kind of retraining system we need. So that's
    going to be a big part of next year's initiative.

    Haiti

        Q. Prime Minister Malval is criticizing President Aristide openly
    for being an obstacle to some sort of reconciliation. Are you on board
    with Prime Minister Malval or President Aristide? Where are you trying
    to throw your support?
        The President. I wouldn't say it's an either-or thing. Let me say,
    we have been working with this Friends of Haiti group, with our friends
    in Canada and France and Venezuela, to try to come up with a new
    approach that would restore democracy, would create the conditions where
    President Aristide could return, and would meet the fundamental
    objective we tried to meet in the Governors Island accord: to guarantee
    the security and the human rights and safety of all the parties in the
    previous disputes.
        So we're going to take another run at it and see if we can do
    something on it. And it's going to require some flexibility on all
    sides. It just is. And we'll just have to see if we can get there. We're
    going to try, hard.
        Q. Thank you.
        The President. Thank you all very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. The exchange portion of this item could not be verified because
    the tape was incomplete.