Bill Clinton: “Unbelievable, but it's true. But this lady could have called from many other cities in the country and small towns, too.…”

“Unbelievable, but it's true. But this lady could have called from many other cities in the country and small towns, too. Let me tell you what I think we can do together. First of all, we've got to strengthen our law enforcement forces. You've got a great new mayor in Detroit in Dennis Archer. He's a longtime friend of mine. I read his inaugural address the other day. It was a brilliant way of getting Detroit together and getting started. But we have to put more police officers on the street, well-trained and working with people in the communities, walking the blocks, working with the kids, preventing crime as well as catching criminals. Our crime bill will put 100,000 more police officers on the street. It's the first priority for Congress when they come back. Secondly, we passed the Brady bill, but we need to do more on guns. Specifically, we need to limit these automatic, semiautomatic assault weapons that have no purpose other than to kill. And I hope we can reach an accord with the sportsmen and quit arguing about things that are false issues and get an agreement on what the problem is and how to attack it. Thirdly, people who are repeated serious violent offenders shouldn't be paroled. And fourthly, you've got to give these kids something to say ``yes'' to. That is, we have got to go into these really distressed areas and rebuild the bonds of family, community, and work. There's got to be education opportunities. There's got to be job opportunities. There's got to be alternatives to imprisonment, like boot camps. There needs to be drug treatment and drug education programs. We can't have it all on the punishment. These children have to have something to say yes to. If you look at a lot of these high crime areas where the gangs and the drugs and the guns are, they fill the vacuum when family collapses, when work collapses. Most of us organize our lives around work, family, community. And a lot of these young people that are in real trouble today and really vulnerable are living in places where there's not enough community, enough family, or enough work. So I think we have to do both things. And then next year or this year now, I'm going to ask the Congress to work with me and then work with the mayors, the Governors, and others to really get serious about this. We've got to do something about it, and we've got a program that will make a difference. Mr. King. To Auckland, New Zealand, with President Clinton. Hello.”