Political Quotes

“I agree with the need for crime prevention programs. I have to say that, as a career criminal prosecutor and also a defense attorney for 2 years, I have found it hard to identify specifically what does prevent crime. During one period of my career I was a specialist in the prosecuting of what we call white-collar crimes, frauds, embezzlements, and so forth. I prosecuted individual after individual who dressed well, spoke well, was well educated, had a job, had a good income, but was greedy for more. As a result, they defrauded the public, they embezzled from their employer, they committed all kinds of crimes, not necessarily as crude as robbing a convenience store at gunpoint, but the intent to steal was just as glaring. The problem is this amendment does not allow, in the words of the gentlewoman from Virginia, the ingenuity of local government. We tell them in this amendment what programs they have to have at the local level and the nature of crime prevention; that is one of the serious things wrong with this amendment.”