THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9408250006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The crime bill that passed in the House in the wee hours of last Sunday after President Clinton managed to pry loose 48 Republican votes is in trouble again in the Senate. Republicans are using procedural tactics to force consideration of amendments, on the not unreasonable grounds that since the House was allowed to amend the bill, the Senate should be able to do so as well. The White House and the Senate Democratic leadership desperately do not want to re-open the bill, for the very simple reason that the crime bill is a criminal fraud.
Democrats are charging that Republicans are captives of the National Rifle Association, which wants to kill the ban on assault weapons. But that argument misses the target. If this were a real crime bill, the assault weapons ban would almost certainly pass if it were a part of it. Like a magician who misdirects the audience's attention while the real trick is taking place elsewhere, the Democrats are desperately seeking to turn attention away from the elements of this bill that have nothing to do with crime.
Indeed, the crime bill looked like a sure winner until the details of what was in it began to leak out over the past two weeks. While some of the more egregious whoppers were stripped from the bill in the House, the bill still contains such dubious crime-fighting measures as: 1) $567 million for unspecified ``child center activities;'' $45 million for the U.S. Olympic Committee to develop sports activities for young people; and $2.7 million to track ``missing Alzheimer's Disease patients.''
And while all the social-welfare ``crime prevention programs would be fully funded, localities would have to come uith matching funds to help get some of the 100,000 new police the bill supposedly provides.
A real crime bill would attack the symptoms of crime rather than the elusive ``root causes.'' A bill that built more prisons, imposed mandatory minimum sentences for the use of a gun in the commission of a crime (which the current crime bill does not do), and reformed federal criminal procedures that keep criminals out of jail, such as the exclusionary rule, would be a worthwhile addition to the statute books.
But that kind of reform would anger Congressional liberals, who are already plenty angry over retreats on health care. The only reason for anyone to vote for this crime bill is in order to have an excuse for refusing to do anything serious about crime.
KEYWORDS: U.S. CONGRESS CRIME BILL
by CNB