[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.