Bill Clinton: “Good morning. This week we joined in sorrow for those who lost their lives in the downing of two of our helicopters over…”

“Good morning. This week we joined in sorrow for those who lost their lives in the downing of two of our helicopters over Iraq. I want to begin by expressing, again, my condolences to the loved ones of those who died. They gave their lives in a high cause, providing comfort to Kurdish victims of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, and we honor the sacrifice of those brave individuals. Today I want to talk about one of the greatest threats we face right here at home: the threat of crime in our communities. In 1991, I visited the Rockwell Gardens in the ABLA housing projects in Chicago where I saw firsthand what happens to our children who live too long in the shadow of fear. Dozens of children rushed out to greet me, eager to have someone to tell their stories to. They talked of gunshots and drug dealers, of late-night knocks at their doors and hallways where they dared not stray. Many of their stories had a common theme: their childhoods were being stolen from them. Vince Lane, the head of the Chicago Housing Authority, is a genuine hero to these children. He's trying to show the children that someone cares. To help, he put into effect a search-and-sweep policy to clean out Chicago's public housing communities, to find weapons, to get people out of those housing projects who didn't belong, to find drugs. But just over a week ago a Federal district judge declared Vince Lane's search- and-sweep policy unconstitutional.…”