    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [February 19, 1997]
    [Pages 174-179]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the University of Massachusetts in Boston
    February 19, 1997

        Thank you. Mr. Mayor; Commissioner Evans; Probation Officer Tanya
    Brooks; President
    Bulger; Chancellor Sherry Penney; Governor
    Weld; Senator Kerry; Congressman Moakley;

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    Congressman Kennedy--I understand you're also an alumni of this
    university; Attorney General Harshbarger, the president of the National
    Association of Attorneys General; thank you all for welcoming me here.
        And I'm delighted to be here with two of my great partners in this
    endeavor, our wonderful Attorney General, Janet Reno, and the Under
    Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement, Ray Kelly. Thank you for
    being here. We're all glad to be here.
        I want to thank all the police officers for being here, especially
    the Voices in Blue for singing the national anthem. They were great.
    Great job, gentlemen. And I'd like to thank the students at the
    University of Massachusetts at Boston. I know that 80 percent of the
    students--I've been told at least that 80 percent of the students here
    are working virtually full-time while pursuing their degrees. That's a
    great tribute to you. And if our budget passes, we'll have the direct
    loan program, the AmeriCorps program, tax cuts for tuition, and a huge
    increase in Pell grants and work-study. I hope it will help you all.
        Oh, there's one more thing before I begin my prepared remarks. This
    is my first trip to Boston and to Massachusetts in 1997, and if you will
    forgive me a purely personal remark, I want to thank the people of
    Massachusetts for giving me the biggest margin of victory of any State
    in the country. Thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you.
        Let me begin, if I might, by trying to put today's event into some
    context. You heard the mayor talking about declining crime generally in
    Boston. Let me just ask you to go back to 4 or 5 years ago. When I
    assumed this office, I wanted to do basically two big things. One is, I
    wanted to kind of get America fixed up; I wanted things to work again.
    And then I wanted to get all of us together to focus on what we need to
    do to prepare our people for a new century; to preserve the American
    dream for everyone who is willing to work for it without regard to their
    background or where they start out in life; to preserve a sense of
    community that embraces every American who is willing to be a
    responsible citizen; and to create a sense that our families, our
    neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, all of our organizations
    were working again; and to maintain our leadership in a rapidly changing
    world. But first we had to make sure things would work.
        And the first thing we worked through in Washington was an economic
    program that was designed to change the whole economic direction of the
    last several years, to get away from spending ourselves into immediate
    prosperity through constant deficits to a longer-term strategy to bring
    the deficit down, get interest rates down, invest in our people, and
    prove we could trade and compete with the rest of the world.
        Now, I just got a report this morning on the last inflationary
    numbers of that 4-year period, which says that the core rate of
    inflation--that is the basic things people buy--the inflation rate
    dropped from 3\1/2\ percent to 2\1/2\ percent in the previous 4 years;
    and that the combined rates of unemployment and inflation on average
    through 4 years, together were 8.7 percent. That's the lowest since
    Lyndon Johnson was the President of the United States, and that's a good
    sign. That's a good sign.
        But what I want to ask you to focus on today is that in some ways
    the whole question of having safe streets, safe neighborhoods, safe
    schools, and safe children has to be prior to economic opportunity,
    because if people are living in constant fear, if their lives are always
    disoriented, if they are completely unpredictable, then it is very hard
    to say to them, ``You should stay in school. You should learn all you
    can. You should look forward to a better future. The 21st century will
    give you more chances to live out your dreams than ever before.'' And if
    the answer you get back is, ``What do you mean, man, I'm trying to stay
    alive until lunch time,'' then it is very difficult to make this country
    work.
        So we have spent a lot of time, as you heard the previous speakers
    discuss, working on this. I asked the Attorney General to assume her
    office because she was a prosecutor in a big urban county in America
    with a world of problems and because she had learned that only by
    empowering the people who lived there that she worked with could she not
    only catch criminals but, more importantly, prevent crime and save
    children for a better future. And we have been working with the attorney
    generals, with the prosecutors, with community leaders, with others all
    across the country for 4 years to try to create the conditions that
    would make it possible for normal life to prevail in our cities and in
    other places which had been victimized by crime.

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        When we passed the crime bill in 1994 with the help of all the
    Members of Congress here on this platform--and I thank them for it--we
    made a commitment to put 100,000 new police on our streets so we could
    go back to community policing. Why? Because violent crime had tripled in
    30 years, and the police forces had increased by 10 percent--300 percent
    against 10 percent. What happened? As a result, people felt overwhelmed
    and more and more police officers had to ride together in cars instead
    of walking on streets in neighborhoods and working with their neighbors,
    so that in a bizarre way, we actually reduced the coverage of the police
    just so they could be safe.
        And now this whole concept of neighborhood or community policing,
    which Boston has done so brilliantly, is sweeping the country. That,
    plus the Brady bill, plus the ban on the assault weapons, plus the new
    efforts to steer young people away from crime, plus tougher penalties
    for serious offenders, all those things now taking hold all across
    America have given us 5 years of declining crime for the first time in
    decades. And that is very, very good news.
        But we have to now look at step two because until last year's
    statistics, we had this heartbreaking, heartbreaking evidence that the
    crime rate in America was going down, but the crime rate among juveniles
    under 18 was going up. Violence among adults was going down, even young
    adults; violence among juveniles going up. Drug use among adults, people
    over 18, going down dramatically; drug use among people under 18 going
    up.
        Last year, we began to see some hope that it might be dropping off,
    but we haven't even had 2 years in a row. But we know that in Boston
    there have been big changes. And we know that we just started the
    largest class of children in our schools in history. There are now about
    52 million young Americans in our schools, the largest school-age
    population ever, even bigger than the biggest baby boom year, now in our
    schools.
        And so we know we've got about 6 years to turn this juvenile crime
    thing around, or our country is going to be living with chaos. And my
    successors will not be giving speeches about the wonderful opportunities
    of the global economy, they'll be trying to keep body and soul together
    for people on the streets of these cities if we don't do everywhere in
    America what you have begun to do in Boston and save our children.
        So the crime bill in '94, the 100,000 police, the neighborhood
    policing, the Brady bill, the assault weapons ban, all those things were
    step one. Step two has got to be a very sharp and disciplined focus on
    the problems of juvenile violence, juvenile crime, juvenile gangs.
    Ninety-five percent of our largest cities and 88 percent of our smaller
    cities report that they are plagued by gang crime. Experts predict the
    number of people arrested for violent crimes will double by the year
    2010 unless we do something about it. Fighting, therefore, juvenile
    crime has got to become our top law enforcement priority.
        When Boston launched Operation Night Light, when police and
    probation officers together can make nightly visits to the homes of
    young people on probation to make sure they're not in violation; when
    you had your Operation Cease-Fire vigorously enforcing graffiti,
    truancy, noise statutes to reclaim neighborhoods and the conditions of
    ordinary life; when you launched the Boston gun project to shut down
    illegal gun dealers who sell to young people, by tracing serial numbers
    and severely punishing those who break the law--these things will work.
        Seventy percent of your young people on probation are now sticking
    to it. That's a huge percentage if you compare it to other places around
    the country. Youth murders have dropped 80 percent in 5 years, and as
    you have heard twice already, you haven't had a single child killed with
    a gun in a year and a half in this city. How I would pray that could
    happen in every city in America.
        I want to compliment the mayor on his youth council and meeting with
    young people who are representative of the city every 6 weeks. And I'd
    like to thank the young woman from the council who appeared today,
    Lanita, on the program. I'd like to thank the young people who have been
    on probation who are making something of their lives. Young Terry
    Thompson was on our program today. I thank him for being a model of
    that.
        What I want to say to you is that we cannot permit this to be only
    an achievement in Boston, because if it is only an achievement in
    Boston, it will be harder for Boston to continue to achieve. Sooner or
    later, what we have to do is to create the notion that it is normal for
    kids not to get shot, and so nobody claps when you say no kid has been
    killed.

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        Do you realize when I was the age of the young people who were on
    our program today--one is 19, I think the other is 17--if I had stood up
    as a young person there, wanting to be noticed, wanting to give a nice
    speech, wanting to give accounting of myself, and I had said, ``We
    haven't had a young person killed in our town for the last year and a
    half,'' do you know what everybody would have said? ``So what? What's
    that fool talking about?'' [Laughter] Today everybody claps. We have to
    keep working until the answer is, ``So what?'' That ought to be the
    answer, shouldn't it? Isn't that what you want? [Applause]
        The truth is that all across our country children are still killing
    children for shoes, for jackets, for turf. And we can stop it. The truth
    is that Boston and just a few other cities have removed any fig leaf of
    excuse that we can't do anything about it. You have now proved that it
    can be stopped, and therefore there is no excuse for not stopping it.
    And the United States of America, through the Congress, this year,
    should pass a law to give every community the tools that you have used
    to make your city safe again, so that we can do it everywhere in
    America.
        I have four parts to the legislation that I am presenting Congress
    today. First, we have to break the backs of the gangs and punish
    juveniles who commit violent crimes with real severity. We have to
    finish putting 100,000 police on the street. And we have to make sure
    communities have the resources to prosecute people who violate the law.
    This bill will help communities to hire new prosecutors to directly deal
    with violent juveniles; to launch antigang units; to pursue, prosecute,
    and punish members who really hurt people. It will give judges more
    power to crack down on gang members who intimidate witnesses, and it
    will give Federal prosecutors for the first time the authority in
    appropriate circumstances to prosecute serious violent juveniles as
    adults.
        The second thing we have to do is to keep drugs and guns away from
    our children. The Brady bill--listen to this--has already blocked more
    than 60,000 felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying a handgun.
    That's an old small number. We'll have some new ones in the next few
    days. But it doesn't permit someone who commits a violent crime as a
    juvenile from buying a handgun once he or she turns 18. I think we
    should close that loophole and extend the Brady bill so that anyone who
    commits a violent crime should not be given the right to buy a handgun.
        Our plan would also require child safety locks on handguns to
    prevent unauthorized use and tragic accident. We ought to do that. We
    have begun an effort actually modeled on the Boston gun project in 17
    other cities to crack down on those who illegally sell guns to young
    people.
        And I said this in the former meeting--I want to say it again
    because I think most Americans don't know it. The Treasury Department
    that license people who sell guns--they have to have a Federal license--
    has cracked down on that whole process in the last 3 years, and there
    are now fewer than half the licensed Federal gun dealers there were just
    3 years ago. We are trying to get control of this process.
        Our plan has the largest antidrug effort ever to stop drugs at their
    source, punish those who push them, and most importantly, to keep
    working to steer young people away from them. General McCaffrey, our
    Nation's drug czar, has recommended that I have asked for funding to
    launch a massive national advertising campaign to deal with something
    that I had thought--wrongly--was basic, and that is how dangerous drugs
    are. It is clear that the main reason that drug use among teenagers is
    going up, while it is going down among people between the ages of 18 and
    35, is that too many teenagers no longer believe that drugs are not only
    wrong and illegal but they can kill them. That--it is clear.
        And it is clear that a lot of young adults who used to be a big part
    of the drug problem now do understand that they can die from this as
    well as be punished for it. And somehow we have got to bring the
    attitudes of the teenagers in line with the attitudes of the young
    adults so that we can deal with that. And we'll be working with that.
        I think every State should now begin to require drug tests of people
    for essential services like driver's licenses. That would send a strong
    message out and be unpopular with a lot of young people who otherwise
    think their President is a pretty good fellow. [Laughter] But I think
    it's the right thing to do.
        The third thing we have to do is to reform the juvenile justice
    system so that it can handle today's juvenile offenders. Most systems
    were designed to deal with truants and other minor problems, not violent
    problems. And we need

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    more people like this fine probation officer that introduced me today
    and more of those folks working with the police.
        The story you have created here is the story we want to recreate in
    every community in the country. I want to hear more stories. I want it
    to be normal when I go some place and say, we go together, and we got
    into people's homes, and we visit with them at night, and they're glad
    to see us, and they understand that we're all on the same side and we're
    trying to save these kids' lives and give them a future. That's the
    story we want to hear everywhere.
        We have to have more special court proceedings for young people,
    with greater flexibility to handle juveniles and tougher penalties to
    punish those who are really gone and then more flexibility and other
    opportunities to save those that ought to be saved. The real answer to
    this has got to be prevention. We have got to prevent these things from
    happening in the first place. That's what all the law enforcement people
    know.
        Finally, we have to help our young people to stay on the right
    track. Our strategy will help to fund 1,000 new after-school initiatives
    in communities across the country to help keep schools open after
    school, on the weekends, in the summer. Listen to this: More than 50
    percent of the juvenile crime in America occurs in the 3 hours after
    school is closed and before the parents are home. That's a stunning
    statistic. You take 3 or 4 hours out of the day, and you've cut the
    problem in half. Now, we don't want our young people left alone on
    street corners when they can be in school or at home. And we have to
    have ways that help our educators, our parents, our religious and
    community leaders to try to save these kids.
        This anti-gang and youth violence strategy is based on what we know
    works. It is really a national framework to give other communities the
    chance to get the resources to do what you're trying to do in Boston.
    That is all it is. Tough when you should be tough; smart when you should
    be smart; compassionate when you should be compassionate; using
    everybody, building partnerships, letting everybody play a role;
    requiring communities to take responsibility for their own streets and
    their own kids and then giving you the outside support you need--that is
    all this bill does.
        It is the critical next step in our fight to have a safe America and
    to give our children a safe childhood. And I ask you here in
    Massachusetts to send a clear message. We know if this can be done in
    Boston, it can be done in every community, in every neighborhood of
    every size in the United States, and we ask the United States Congress
    to do what you've done here in Massachusetts: cross all party lines,
    throw politics away, throw the speeches in the trashcan, join hands.
    Let's do what works and make America the safe place it has to be.
        Let me just make one other point to you. The citizens of this
    country have got to do their part--every citizen. And one of the things
    that I want to announce today that I'm very proud of is--that I think
    will help make all of you be better citizens and to support community
    policing, which is clearly the single most decisive element in bringing
    the crime rate, the neighborhood policing system.
        Not very long ago I was made aware of a problem that--like a lot of
    problems ordinary people have that Presidents don't know about because
    our lives are so isolated--I learned that a lot of the 911 numbers were
    breaking down because 911 was being clogged up not only by genuine
    emergencies but by other legitimate calls that weren't really
    emergencies. And so I asked the Federal Communications Commission to set
    up a national community policing number for non-emergencies so that 911
    calls would always go through when there was a matter of life and death,
    but all the other calls could be handled as well. This morning, the FCC
    announced that they are designating and setting aside the numbers 311 as
    a national non-emergency community policing number. And I believe it
    will help you.
        So to all of you out here who are just citizens, I say: Use both
    numbers, and talk to your neighbors about using them in the right way.
    Be a part of a neighborhood watch. Support these community police
    officers, these probation officers, and do what you can to play your
    part. We'll do our part. You have to do your part.
        If this country is going to be the country it ought to be in the
    21st century, we can't have any more reports like the one that came out
    of the Center for Disease Control a few days ago saying that 75 percent
    of all the kids murdered in the industrial world are killed in the
    United States. What we've got to do is to create the record of the last
    year and a half in Boston for the United States. If you give our kids
    back their lives and their future, they

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    will make America the world's greatest country in the 21st century.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:22 p.m. at the Clark Athletic Center. In
    his remarks, he referred to Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston; Paul Evans,
    Boston police commissioner; William Bulger, president, and Sherry H.
    Penney, chancellor, University of Massachusetts; Gov. William Weld and
    Attorney General L. Scott Harshbarger of Massachusetts; and Lanita
    Tolentino and Terry Thompson, members of the Mayor's Youth Council. A
    portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was
    incomplete.