    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 13, 1994]
    [Pages 1539-1541]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of
    1994
    September 13, 1994

        I think we ought to give the Vice President a hand for all the work
    that he has done. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for your
    introduction and for your labors on this bill.
        Most of the introductions have been made, but I want to join what
    has been said. I want to thank the members of my Cabinet, General Reno
    and Secretary Bentsen and all the others who worked so hard on this. I
    want to thank all these mayors here, Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Webb, Mayor
    Rice, Mayor Daley, Mayor James, Mayor Rendell, all the other mayors. I'd
    like to ask--and there are some county officials here--I'd like to ask
    all the local leaders who are here to please stand up; they didn't all
    stand--I'd like to ask them all to stand and be recognized. Mayor
    Golding, Susan, good to see you. Mayor Schmoke, Mayor Helmke, Mayor
    Abramson who got cauliflower ear from making his phone calls. [Laughter]
    I'd also like to ask, even though many of them have been introduced, I
    would like to ask the people without whom we would not be here today,
    all the Members of the Congress who are here, Republicans and Democrats,
    to please stand and be acknowledged; every one of them, I'd like for
    them to stand up. Thank you.
        And let me say to all the representatives of the victims groups and
    the citizens groups how grateful we are to you; to all the leaders of
    the law enforcement groups; to all the rank-and-file folks who worked so
    hard; to all the leaders of the community groups of people who wanted to
    give our kids something to say yes to and to prevent crime before it
    occurs; to all the ministers--to all of you, I thank you for being here
    and for making this day possible.
        The American people have been waiting a long time for this day. In
    the last 25 years, half a million Americans have been killed by other
    Americans. For 25 years, crime has been a hot political issue, used too
    often to divide us while the system makes excuses for not punishing
    criminals and doing the job, instead of being used to unite us to
    prevent crime, punish criminals, and restore a sense of safety and
    security to the American people.
        For the last 6 years, children have become the most likely victims
    of violent crime and its most likely perpetrators. And for 6 years,
    Washington debated a crime bill without action while more and more
    children died and more and more children became criminals and foreclosed
    a productive life for themselves.
        In the last 2 years, Meghan Sposato lost a mother she had only begun
    to know; Polly Klaas lost her life to a felon who should never have been
    back on the streets; and James Darby wrote his President a letter
    because he was so afraid, only to lose his life walking home before
    anybody could erase his fears. And still, some people in this town tried
    to keep this day from happening. But today, at last, the waiting ends.
        Today the bickering stops, the era of excuses is over, the law-
    abiding citizens of our country have made their voices heard. Never
    again should Washington put politics and party above law and order.
        From this day forward, let us put partisanship behind us, and let us
    go forward--Democrats, Republicans and independents, law enforcement,
    community leaders, ordinary citizens--let us roll up our sleeves to roll
    back this awful tide of violence and reduce crime in our country. We
    have the tools now. Let us get about the business of using them.
        One of the reasons that I sought this office is to get this bill,
    because if the American people do not feel safe on their streets, in
    their schools, in their homes, in their places of work and worship, then
    it is difficult to say that the American people are free.
        Not so long ago, kids grew up knowing they'd have to pay if they
    broke a neighbor's window playing ball. I know; I did it once.
    [Laughter] They knew they'd be in trouble if they lied

    [[Page 1540]]

    or stole because their parents and teachers and neighbors cared enough
    to set them straight. And everybody knew that anybody who committed a
    serious crime would be caught and convicted and would serve their time
    in jail. The rules were simple, the results were predictable, and we
    lived better because of it. Punishment was swift and certain for people
    who didn't follow the rules, and the rewards of America were
    considerable for those who did.
        Now, too many kids don't have parents who care. Gangs and drugs have
    taken over our streets and undermined our schools. Every day we read
    about somebody else who has literally gotten away with murder. But the
    American people haven't forgotten the difference between right and
    wrong. The system has. The American people haven't stopped wanting to
    raise their children in lives of safety and dignity, but they've got a
    lot of obstacles in their way.
        When I sign this crime bill, we together are taking a big step
    toward bringing the laws of our land back into line with the values of
    our people and beginning to restore the line between right and wrong.
    There must be no doubt about whose side we're on. People who commit
    crimes should be caught, convicted, and punished. This bill puts
    Government on the side of those who abide by the law, not those who
    break it; on the side of the victims, not their attackers; on the side
    of the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for us every
    day, not the criminals or those who would turn away from law
    enforcement. That's why police and prosecutors and preachers fought so
    hard for this bill and why I am so proud to sign it into law today.
        When this bill is law, ``three strikes and you're out'' will be the
    law of the land; the penalty for killing a law enforcement officer will
    be death; we will have a significant--[applause]--we will have the means
    by which we can say punishment will be more certain. We will cut the
    Federal work force over a period of years by 270,000 positions to its
    lowest level in 30 years and take all that money to pay for this crime
    bill. The savings will be used to put 100,000 police officers on the
    street, a 20 percent increase. It will be used to build prisons to keep
    100,000 violent criminals off the street. It will be used to give our
    young people something to say yes to, places where they can go after
    school where they are safe, where they can do constructive things that
    will help them to build their lives, where teachers replace gang leaders
    as role models. All of these things should be done and will be done.
        This bill makes it illegal for juveniles to own handguns and, yes,
    without eroding the rights of sports men and women in this country, we
    will finally ban these assault weapons from our street that have no
    purpose other than to kill.
        But my friends, let us be frank with each other: Even this great
    law, the toughest and smartest crime bill in our history, cannot do the
    job alone. By its own words, it is still a law. It must be implemented
    by you, and it must be supplemented by you. Even when we put a new
    police officer on your block, the officer can't make you safe unless you
    come out of your home and help the officer do his or her job. Even when
    we keep our schools open late and give our children an alternative to
    drugs and gangs, your children won't learn the difference between right
    and wrong unless you teach them and they're in those schools when
    they're open. Our country will not truly be safe again until all
    Americans take personal responsibility for themselves, their families,
    and their communities. This day is the beginning, not the end, of our
    effort to restore safety and security to the people of this country.
        Here in Washington there is more that we can do. Today I am naming
    Vice President Gore, whose reinventing Government report first proposed
    the cuts in the bureaucracy that will pay for this bill, to head the
    President's Prevention Council. I want him to work with every Department
    to make this a coherent and cost-effective effort to give communities
    the tools they need to prevent crime from occurring in the first place.
    In a few weeks I will name the head of our program to put 100,000 new
    police on the street. And early next month, the Justice Department will
    award grants to put new police on the street in 150 more cities and
    towns that applied last year.
        Last Sunday, I was in Maryland, and Senator Sarbanes told me that
    already one of our community policing grants had resulted in the capture
    of a serious felon in a community in his State. This will make a
    difference. And I want to commend the Attorney General and the Justice
    Department for being determined to do this right, to get this money out
    to the grassroots so that we can hire the police and get on with the
    job.

    [[Page 1541]]

        Thirdly, in the coming months the Vice President and I will hold
    forums on crime and violence all across our country, with all kinds of
    people from all walks of life, leading up here to a meeting at the White
    House next year to launch a national effort at the grassroots level in
    each and every community to implement the crime bill properly, to
    enshrine the values and common sense the crime bill represents, and to
    do something about this terrible scourge of violence that is especially
    gripping our children and robbing them of their future. We intend to
    continue the fight, and we want you to keep working with us.
        Today we remember the thousands of officers who gave their lives to
    make our Nation safer, whose names are inscribed in a stone memorial
    just a mile away from here. We remember the innocent victims whose lives
    were lost and whose families were shattered by the scourge of violent
    crime. We remember three, James Darby, Polly Klaas, and Jody Sposato,
    whose deaths literally galvanized this Nation and shamed our political
    system into action. It is in their memories that I dedicate this bill. I
    hope this law will always be remembered in their names. And I hope, too,
    that we will remember what the Vice President said, ``The ultimate
    victory of this law will be in the salvation of the children whose names
    we will never know.''
        Early in 1992, I was walking through one of the countless kitchens
    of a hotel lobby in New York on my way to a dinner when a waiter working
    there came up to me and grabbed me, and he said, ``Mr. President''--he
    didn't call me Governor then--he said, ``My 10-year-old boy is studying
    this election in school, and he says I should vote for you.'' But he
    said, ``I want to tell you something first. I came here as an immigrant,
    and the place where I lived was very poor, and we were very poor. But at
    least we were free. Now we live here, and we have more money, but we are
    not free. We are not free because my boy can't walk across the street
    and play in the park unless I am with him. We are not free because my
    boy cannot walk to school unless I am with him. Make my boy free.''
        On the day after the crime bill was signed, I received a letter
    carefully typed from a very young man who is the son of a member of our
    administration. It was so eloquent. He said, ``I live in a good
    neighborhood. I go to a nice school. You wouldn't think people like me
    would care about this crime bill, but I have been keeping up with it
    every day because every time I go out with my friends at night to a
    movie or to a game, I think someone might shoot me before I get home.
    Now I feel so much better.''
        My fellow Americans, this is about freedom. Without responsibility,
    without order, without lawfulness, there is no freedom. Today the will
    of the American people has triumphed over a generation of division and
    paralysis. We've won a chance to work together.
        So in that spirit, let us rededicate ourselves today to making this
    law become the life of our country, to restoring the sense of right and
    wrong that built our country, and to make it safe, not in words but in
    fact, in the lifeblood of every child and every citizen of this country
    who believes in the promise of America. Let us make it real.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:48 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Mayors Rudolph Giuliani of New
    York City; Wellington E. Webb of Denver, CO; Norman Rice of Seattle, WA;
    Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL; Sharpe James of Newark, NJ; Edward
    Rendell of Philadelphia, PA; Susan Golding of San Diego, CA; Kurt
    Schmoke of Baltimore, MD; Paul Helmke of Fort Wayne, IN; and Jerry
    Abramson of Louisville, KY. H.R. 3355, approved September 13, was
    assigned Public Law No. 103-322.