    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 15, 1996]
    [Pages 738-740]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service
    May 15, 1996

        Thank you very much, Gil Gallegos, for your introduction, your
    leadership, and your very moving remarks. Thank you, Karen Lippe,
    Senator Daschle, Senator Biden, Attorney General Reno, Secretary Rubin,
    General McCaffrey, distinguished leaders of law enforcement, and the
    supporters of law enforcement who are here. To all the family members
    who are here, and especially to the families who lost the life of
    someone you loved because that person was willing to risk his or her
    life to protect the rest of us, I say thank you from a grateful nation.
    Thank you for your strength, your courage, and your sacrifice. We are
    all forever in your debt.
        I am proud to stand with you today to honor the memory and the lives
    of the more than 170 men and women who died for their country last year
    in the service of law enforcement, who died for law, for order, for
    justice, and for peace. They were American heroes.
        When I joined you last year on this very difficult day, it was not
    even a month since the bombing in Oklahoma City revealed to all of us
    the evil of which some people are capable. Today, eight Federal law
    enforcement officers who lost their lives on that dark day join their
    brothers and sisters on the memorial wall.
        As the shock waves from the bombing reverberated across our Nation,
    thousands of Americans dropped whatever they were doing and went to
    help. One of them was a deputy sheriff in Milledgeville, Georgia, named
    Will Robinson. He worked all day and all night cooking meals for
    emergency workers and volunteers, doing whatever he could to help.
    That's what he was all about. That's why he went into law enforcement,
    to help. That's why he was planning to dress up as Santa Claus and play
    with kids in prekindergarten last Christmas, just like he did the year
    before. He wanted the children to have some fun and to know that police
    officers are people you can count on.

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        But just before last Christmas, William Edward Robinson, 26 years
    old, 3 years a deputy sheriff, with a firm handshake and a big heart,
    responded to a 911 call and was gunned down doing his job, trying to
    stop an armed robber getting away with a few hundred dollars. Will's
    boss, Sheriff Bill Massee, called him ``everybody's friend, the boy you
    wanted your daughter to go out with, the boy you wanted to be your son's
    best friend, the last person I ever wanted to see killed in the line of
    duty.''
        My friends, there are 14,064 names on the law enforcement memorial,
    every one like Deputy Sheriff Will Robinson, heroes who laid down their
    lives for their neighbors, people we must honor, living up to their
    example and carrying on their crusade.
        I know the American people sometimes take what law enforcement
    officers do for granted. But the truth is, it is extraordinary. Somehow
    you find the strength to get up every day, put your badge on, and risk
    your life for the rest of us, an act all the more wondrous for its
    simple, silent courage.
        Police risk everything, and what do we owe them for it? Well, when
    police are walking down the street, they ought to feel like every law-
    abiding citizen is walking with them. When they catch a violent
    criminal, they should feel confident they will be punished promptly and
    severely. When they enter danger, they should not have to worry that
    they will be easily outgunned. They should always know that the fight
    against crime is a national commitment.
        That is what I have tried to bring to our country with the help of
    men and women in the Congress of both parties. We know the police need
    reinforcement; you have told us that. And America needs more police.
    That's why our crime bill puts another 100,000 police on the street over
    5 years.
        Just today, before I came over here, I spoke to mayors and police
    chiefs all across this country to award nearly 9,000 new police officers
    to over 2,500 communities, to bring our total to 43,000 new officers in
    just 20 months. We're going to meet that 100,000 commitment to you and
    the citizens you protect.
        Thanks to the efforts of Members of Congress in both parties, we
    took 19 deadly assault weapons off the street and made the Brady bill
    the law of the land. And not a single, law-abiding sportsman or woman
    has lost a weapon. But 60,000 people have lost the chance to buy a
    weapon; 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers were prohibited from
    buying handguns because of the Brady bill. That makes law enforcement
    safer and more successful. The crime bill said to repeat violent
    offenders, ``three strikes and you're out.'' If you murder law
    enforcement officers, the death penalty is waiting.
        And thanks to you and those whom we honor today for their ultimate
    sacrifice and to citizens who have supported you, crime is coming down
    in America. Violent crimes have dropped for 3 years in a row. We know it
    is not enough. We know we must do more. As your president said, the
    antiterrorism bill will help. And again, I thank the Members of Congress
    in both parties who supported it.
        We also know that citizens have to do more. Just last week I called
    for a citizen force of one million more volunteers to stand shoulder to
    shoulder with you. There are 20,000 neighborhood crime watch groups in
    America. If 50 more people joined each one of them, there would be a
    million more folks standing by those of you in uniform to prevent crime
    before it happens, to help catch criminals when it does, to make our
    streets safer, and make your work more successful. I hope the American
    people will join you in greater numbers than ever in the months and
    years ahead.
        But we have some work to do up here as well. Today I challenge
    Congress to follow its admirable work in the crime bill, the Brady bill,
    the antiterrorism bill, in listening to the police officers across this
    country in passing a ban on cop-killer bullets. We don't need a
    commission to study it. We don't need research to tell us what kind of
    materials make these armor-piercing bullets. We need a simple test and a
    straightforward ban. If a bullet can go through a bulletproof vest like
    a hot knife through butter, it should be against the law.
        These bullets are designed to kill law enforcement officers wearing
    bulletproof vests. This is not a complicated issue, my friends. It's a
    simple, straightforward issue of a commitment to the safety of our men
    and women in uniform.
        The second thing we ought to do is to make sure that anyone in
    America who commits a truly violent crime serves the time. The Federal
    Government has eliminated parole. I renew the challenge I made to the
    States last January in the State of the Union: Guarantee that serious,
    violent criminals serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.

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        It is wrong to make our police officers risk their lives to
    apprehend dangerous criminals, then go to the trouble of trying them and
    seeing them convicted, and then have to see the same police officers
    face the same criminals on the street before they have received the full
    punishment the jury gave them. Police officers should not have to risk
    their lives and then stand like doormen at a revolving door of a
    penitentiary.
        These are commonsense ideas, but they're more. They're the least we
    can do for the brave men and women of American law enforcement. So,
    again I say, as we have often in the last 3 years, let us put aside
    partisanship and close ranks and work together and get the job done.
        My fellow Americans, we lost too many wonderful men and women in
    uniform last year. We lost more last year than in any year in 6 years.
    Nothing we can do will ease the sorrow or soften the blow for those of
    you who survive them. Only God and time and the love you have for each
    other can do that. But you must know how much the rest of us honor them
    and how much we honor you. Those who gave their lives in the oldest
    fight of all, for right over wrong, for peace over conflict, for the
    safety of their neighbors and their family and their friends, in their
    memory, we must move forward.
        I know, as all of you do, that we will never eliminate crime
    completely. It is not within the power of any of us to totally transform
    human nature. But I do believe that we can make America a better and
    different and safer place.
        And the test would be simple for me. I believe we would honor the
    sacrifice of those whom we honor today if we could create an America
    where every time you turned on the television news, you didn't see a
    report of a horrible crime leading the news, and when you did see one,
    you were shocked instead of numbed; you knew it was the exception, not
    the rule; you knew we had turned the tide and made this a basically
    peaceful, law-abiding, safe country for children to grow up in and go to
    school in and raise their own families in. That is the test by which we
    must measure our efforts to honor those who have served us with the last
    full measure of their devotion.
        Until then, let me pledge to you that all of us who see you will
    remain humbled by your courage, know we are safer for your service, and
    will attempt to be faithful to the standard your sacrifice demands.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:43 p.m. on the Capitol steps. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gil Gallegos, president, Fraternal Order of
    Police, and Karen Lippe, president, Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary.