THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410180127
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Virginia Attorney General James S. Gilmore III gave the keynote address last Friday night at the Virginia Beach Police Department's Recruit Academy's 19th graduation ceremony. Afterward, he spoke with Beacon correspondent Greg Goldfarb:
Q. Governor Allen signed the state's new crime reform legislation yesterday. It doesn't go into effect until Jan. 1, 1995. What will it mean to the Virginia Beach community?
A. I was there with him when he signed it. We think that it sends an important message, not only in Virginia Beach, but all throughout Virginia, that we're going to be serious about criminals who commit violent crime. That we're going to be square and honest with our citizens and let them know what people are really getting in the courtroom, and what they're really going to serve. We believe that it's going to take violent people, increasingly, off the streets - the same type of people who commit crimes over and over again. And we think that it's an important message to send into the entire community, that we're standing by the citizens.
Q. Virginia Beach already enjoys a relatively low crime rate, compared to many other metropolitan cities across the nation. What have we done right? What can we keep doing to stay safe?
A. I think it's important that we set a strong standard of right and wrong. And that is what this new bill - this new criminal justice reform will do - and we think that it's important, also, to focus on the young people and children, and make sure that they know that there are alternatives to a life of crime, and that they have ways that they can go and be successful. We think that it's important to emphasize the value of family and parental responsibility, and finally, in the end, it's always self-responsibility and accountability, and these are important principles that we're putting forward.
Q. Is society, in general, becoming more or less violent?
A. I think it's impossible to tell whether or not it's becoming more or less violent, but we consider every victim to be important, without regard to rates. We are increasingly concerned about the future, with the increasing numbers of young people coming up who are in a crime-prone age. We don't want to surrender one single young person to this criminal justice system. But one thing that we do want to do is, we want to assure our citizens that we're going to have a criminal justice system that's going to be protective of them.
Q. Do the new Virginia Beach police officers here tonight fully understand how mean it can be out on the streets?
A. I think it's important, and I think they know this because of their training, that what their training has emphasized, what I emphasized tonight, was the importance of calmness, professionalism, responses to training, good judgment and always being prepared to recognize that there are good people out there that they'll be helping, as well as the people that they're going to have to arrest. They need to understand the ability to know those differences and to conduct themselves with good judgment and temperance. by CNB