    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 13, 1996]
    [Pages 1824-1825]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Departure From Denver
    October 13, 1996

        Good morning. I'd like to thank Mayor Webb; Chief Michaud; Sheriff
    Pat Sullivan from Arapahoe County; the Denver DA, Bill Ritter; Pat
    Alstrom; Aries Zavaras; the members of the Denver Police Department; and
    the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office for being here with me today.
        Today I sign legislation to crack down on criminals who employ
    illegal drugs in a sick attempt to facilitate their violent crimes. This
    law will strengthen penalties against anyone who uses the date rape
    drug, Rohypnol, in connection with violent crime.
        Even though Rohypnol is already illegal to produce or prescribe in
    the United States, sometimes it is illegally obtained by criminals who
    use it to incapacitate their intended victims. We must do everything we
    can to stop it. In March, I ordered the Secretary of the Treasury and
    the customs department to seize all Rohypnol coming across our borders,
    and we are succeeding in cutting off the supply. Now we'll have the
    power to come down hard on those who use the date rape drug in pursuit
    of their own illegal goals.
        This legislation is another example of what we can do in Washington
    to help law-abiding citizens and local law enforcement officials fight
    crime in their own communities. Today we have more evidence that this
    strategy is working. The FBI reports that America's crime rate is at a
    10-year low. Here in Denver, overall crime is down 13 percent since
    1993. The murder rate and the overall crime rate--violent crime rate--
    are at their lowest levels in the United States since 1989.
        This is good news for Americans. It shows that law-abiding citizens
    working with our police can take back our streets. It also shows that we
    can help. After years of Washington finger-pointing and rhetoric over
    who was to blame for rising crime, we came to Washington and started out
    with a different question: What can we all do together to help people in
    their local communities fight crime and lower the crime and violence
    rates, put more police on the beat, put tougher penalties on the books,
    get guns off the street, and steer our young people away from crime and
    drugs and gangs in the first place?
        Our plan is putting 100,000 police officers on our streets. We've
    already funded nearly half of those since 1994. I understand that all
    these who are here with Sheriff Sullivan are among those who have come
    into law enforcement since the crime bill passed with those funds.
        We banned deadly assault weapons, but not one hunter in Colorado,
    Arkansas, or any other State lost his hunting or sporting weapon. Sixty
    thousand felons, fugitives, and stalkers were stopped from buying a gun
    because of the Brady bill. We made ``three strikes and you're out'' the
    law of the land. We passed the death penalty for drug kingpins and cop
    killers. In the last month we extended the Brady bill to prevent anyone
    convicted of beating up a spouse or a child from buying a handgun, and
    we required drug testing for all parolees and prisoners as a condition
    of getting Federal prison construction funds.
        Today's news shows that we are on the right track, but we have so
    much more to do. Crime and violence in our country are still too high.
    Even juvenile crime is starting to go down, but it's still too high.
    We've taken a special aggressive effort to deal with the problems of
    domestic violence and violence against women, but there is still too
    much of it. There is too much killing, too much violence, too much gang-
    related criminal activity.
        We must tackle the violent street gangs that rob too many children
    of their futures. We must break the vicious cycle of crime and drugs. We
    have to finish putting those 100,000 police offi-

    [[Page 1825]]

    cers on the street. We should ban cop-killer bullets that are designed
    for one reason only, to pierce the bulletproof vests that police
    officers wear and kill them. And we have to work to create an
    environment for our children to grow up in free of crime, drugs,
    violence and free from the influences that make them more likely to get
    involved in those things or less sensitive to violence and crime when
    they occur.
        One of the most remarkable things about the crime statistics--I'd
    just like to say in passing that I commend all of you--is the percentage
    of people who are now killed by people who don't know them. Just 20
    years ago, about two-thirds of all killings in our country were people
    who knew their victims, family members, friends, others who had deep,
    personal feuds. Then in 1990, it had dropped to just a little over half.
    In these latest crime statistics, 55 percent of all the people who were
    killed in this country were killed by people who did not know them, who
    were the victims of crimes, drive-by shootings, random acts of violence.
    We have got to do what we can to continue to change the environment in
    which our children grow up as well.
        I know we will never eliminate crime completely, but we proved we
    can turn it around. Four years in a row, the crime rate has dropped.
    It's now at a 10-year low. If we can bring it down for 4 more years,
    maybe we will create an America which at least when people come home
    from work and turn on the television news, if the leading story is a
    report of a violent crime, they will be shocked, instead of numb to it
    as too many are today. That's the kind of America we can build if we
    work together.
        And again, let me close with my heartfelt thanks to the law
    enforcement officials and the other officials from the city and the
    State and the county who are here with me today for the work they do to
    make our streets safe, our homes safe, our schools safe, our businesses
    safe, and the people they represent all across the United States. We
    have demonstrated, all of us working together, along with all the
    citizens who work in these citizens groups around America, that we can
    lower the crime rate. We need to keep going until we can bear it and
    feel that we're living in a safe country again.
        Thank you all very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:12 a.m. on the tarmac at Denver
    International Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Wellington
    Webb of Denver; David Michaud, Denver chief of police; Pat Alstrom,
    executive director, Colorado Department of Public Safety; and Aries
    Zavaras, executive director, Colorado Department of Corrections. H.R.
    4137, the Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act of 1996,
    approved October 13, was assigned Public Law No. 104-305.