[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[July 22, 1998]
[Pages 1294-1297]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Crime Prevention Efforts
July 22, 1998

    Thank you very much. If I had any sense at all, I would not say a 
word. [Laughter] I've got to tell you, before I came over here, my staff 
all gathered very solemnly in the Oval Office, and they said, ``Now, you 
know, there's going to be a lot of preachers there today, and Reverend 
Anthony said he was going to be moved by the spirit. You stick to the 
text. We don't want you to get too moved by the spirit.'' [Laughter] I 
don't know if I can honor that.

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Death of Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

    Let me say, before I begin--I was just handed a note; I think it's 
appropriate since we have so many ministers here--that one of our 
greatest astronauts, Alan Shepard, has just passed away. Those of us who 
are old enough to remember the first space flights will always remember 
what an impression he made on us and on the world. And so I would like 
to express the gratitude of our Nation and to say that our thoughts and 
prayers are with his family.

Crime Prevention Efforts

    Let me begin by thanking all the people who are here, Eric Holder 
and Ray Fisher, all the people at the Justice Department who have done 
such a good job. Commissioner Evans, it's good to see you again, and I 
never get tired of hearing the story of what Boston has done. Reverend 
Anthony, thank you for your wonderful statement and the power of your 
example. I thank Congressmen Cummings and Cardin, who are here from 
Maryland, and two Senators who have supported this program very strongly 
and were not able to come at the last minute: I want to acknowledge 
Senator Joe Biden and Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.
    I thank Mayor Alan Styles from Salinas, California; Mayor James 
Garner from Hempstead, New York; Mayor Marion Barry from Washington; 
Mayor Kurt Schmoke from Baltimore; and Mayor and Reverend Emanuel 
Cleaver from Kansas City, Missouri, for being here. The chief of police 
of Washington, DC, Charles Ramsey, is here; Reuben Greenberg from 
Charleston, South Carolina; Michelle Mitchell from Richmond. There are 
children here from Brown Junior High School and from Baltimore and from 
Philadelphia. We welcome you all.
    This is really about what we can do together to save our children 
and to strengthen our country's future. For all the good things that are 
happening in America--unemployment, inflation, crime, welfare the lowest 
in somewhere between 25 and 32 years, depending on the statistic--we 
have to understand that there are still too many of our children who are 
left out and left behind and that, in order to honor our solemn 
responsibilities as citizens and our fundamental moral duties as human 
beings, we have to do a better job.
    I am gratified that crime is at a 25-year low. Surely, the improving 
economy had something to do with it. But I am persuaded that the lion's 
share of credit goes to people--those nameless people Reverend Anthony 
spoke about, who wear uniforms and who work in churches and other 
religious institutions, who work in schools and work on streets, and who 
talk to their kids at home at night. What is working in America is a 
community-based, prevention-oriented, broad-based partnership to try to 
bring crime down and bring out kids back. And the faith community has an 
important role to play.
    I noted--one of the things that I remembered about the first time I 
went to Boston and met with the mayor's youth council is it was being 
run by a Roman Catholic nun. Everybody showed up; they were on time--
[laughter]--it ran like clockwork; it was great--[laughter]--including 
me. We all did our part.
    And I think it is important to say that this community-based, 
prevention-oriented, broad-based partnership represented by the children 
and the adults here, including the members of the faith community, that 
it is working. And what we want to do today is to see it work everywhere 
in America.
    You heard Commissioner Evans say that in Boston, police, 
prosecutors, principals, pastors, they all got together around the 
table. They called on everybody to take responsibility to stop gangs and 
guns and drugs and to change attitudes--above all, to change attitudes: 
how people look at themselves, how they look at other people, whether 
they treat them with respect. And they recognized that the only strategy 
that will work in the long run is one that keeps our children out of 
trouble in the first place.
    I can't help noting that I've had the opportunity to spend quite a 
bit of time in the city of Chicago. You all clapped when the mention was 
made of our commitment to before- and after-school programs. There are 
now over 40,000 children, I believe, that get three square meals a day 
in the Chicago school system; they stay through supper. And the summer 
school is now the sixth largest school district in the United States, 
and a lot of the kids have to go because they don't make good enough 
grades during the year. But because it's a positive thing, the community 
groups, the parents groups, everybody supports it. It's a way of 
building a good future for our children.
    So that's what we're here to celebrate and to emphasize that there 
is a critical, fundamental

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role for the faith community in teaching our children a sense of right 
and wrong and self-discipline and respect. Boston's pastors and faith 
communities took the lead. Often, they are the most stable institutions 
left in unstable neighborhoods. I think it is important that these 
mentors saw in each child a cause and not just a case file; a future, 
not just a present full of problems.
    When young people learn to turn to values, then they turn away from 
gangs. That was the message of what Reverend Anthony said more 
eloquently than I could. When they learn the basic rules of right and 
wrong, then they can reject the rules of the street. If it's true in 
Boston, if it's true in Washington, if it's true anywhere, it can be 
true everywhere. And that is what we're here about. If something can 
happen somewhere, it is our duty to make sure it happens everywhere.
    Indeed, that has been the whole philosophy behind this 
administration's anticrime efforts. When I was Governor, I worked a lot 
on these issues at home. Very often, I would work with religious 
leaders--Christian leaders, Jewish leaders; in my State, black Muslims 
were often quite active in community-based efforts to save our children. 
But the thing that struck me was that there was never a system. And the 
thing that Boston has done so well is that they have created a system 
within which everybody has a role to play where they can be most 
effective. And it has worked.
    Last year researchers at Harvard found that urban neighborhoods with 
a strong sense of community and shared values had much, much lower crime 
rates than those without it--big surprise. But when you hear people in 
my position or elected officials talking about crime, how often do you 
hear them talk about that? You get more emotion on the meter readers if 
you give some rough, tough speech about jails and punishment. Well, we 
have to have jails, and people who do the wrong things have to be 
punished. But we will never jail our way out of America's problems, and 
you know that.
    I want to thank exhibit A here for coming--if I could call him 
that--Reverend Eugene Rivers, who's sitting behind me. I thank him for 
being here. He has gotten to know some of Boston's most troubled 
children, welcoming them to his parish, Baker House; offering 
counseling, recreation, and an occasional pizza party; introducing 
children who have known nothing but chaos at home to the serenity of 
prayer. He mediates fights, visits homes, shows up at school when they 
get in trouble. He has been there for his kids, making them understand 
that God cares about each and every one of them and he cares whether 
they do well. He cares whether they get an A or an F on a test, whether 
they get in a fight or get a citation for doing good at school. They 
will be praised when they succeed, disciplined when they fail.
    Two of his children are with him today: Kenyatta Moon and Tony 
Barry. Growing up hasn't been easy for either of them. But with Reverend 
Rivers' help, they have stayed on track. Tony is taking college prep 
courses; Kenyatta will begin college this fall. And we congratulate you.
    You know, we have worked very hard to open the doors of college to 
all Americans, to give scholarships and tax credits, and to make sure, 
in effect, we can make 2 years of college virtually free to nearly 
everyone in this country. But you still have to get in. And this is 
very, very important, what is being done. I know there are many more 
just like Reverend Rivers and just like these young people, doing good 
things across this country, more like our wonderful speaker, who gave me 
such a powerful introduction. What we have to do is to give all of them 
the tools they need to succeed.
    That is what we're here to do today. Today I am glad and proud to 
announce that we will be making new value-based violence prevention 
grants to 16 communities across our country, to help law enforcement, 
schools, businesses, and faith communities, together, work to prevent 
truancy, mentor, teach values, and offer children positive alternatives 
to gangs and drugs.
    Congress, too, must act because 16 is not enough. In the juvenile 
justice bill, which I modeled in large measure on the Boston success 
story, there are funds for more of these kinds of programs. We need 
these funds. We need more funds for before- and after-school programs, 
for the summer school programs, for the community-based programs. We 
need these funds. Our role here in Washington on this is to give people 
the tools and to clear away the obstacles necessary to have more success 
stories.
    I can't thank the mayors and the police chiefs who are here enough 
for the examples that they have set in their own communities.
    Carl Sandburg once said that a baby is God's opinion that the world 
should go on. Well, when

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we lose our children, we are thwarting the opinion of God. We are 
blessed with our children. They will be America in the 21st century. 
What America will be depends upon what we do to help them become all 
they can be. That depends upon us. It is our responsibility.
    I can't tell you how moved I am by all the stories I have read, all 
the examples I have seen, all the work that has been done by the people 
that are in this room and the people they represent all across America. 
Some of them have been out there for years and years and years. But now, 
they have found a way to work together that will have dramatic, 
profound, and permanent success. We owe it to them to help them.
    We're taking a big first step today, and if Congress will give me 
the funds, we'll put the welfare of the American people first. Even in 
an election year, let's not let partisanship get in the way of this 
critical mission. We will see these stories sweep across this country, 
and we'll have a lot more children to celebrate.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Rev. Lewis M. Anthony, 
senior pastor, Metropolitan Wesley AME Zion Church, Washington, DC, who 
introduced the President; Paul Evans, Boston police commissioner; Reuben 
Greenberg, police chief, Charleston, SC; Michelle B. Mitchell, sheriff, 
Richmond, VA; and Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, codirector, National Ten 
Point Leadership Foundation.