Political Quotes

“We as a society, and the Congress as a microcosm of that society, have very few tools at our disposal with which to fight crime except the power of making laws which could be very significant. I believe that the current crime statistics, which seem to show a slowdown in some of the major crimes, are as a result of the tougher stands that local and Federal officials have taken over the past 10 years, with tougher penalties and tougher ways of dealing with the criminal in a deterrent way. If we cannot make our laws constitute a deterrent to crime, then we have failed miserably. We believe that the legislation that is now at hand with respect to the crimes to be committed in the future against children, that these elements will act as a deterrent. What is special about this is that, if a criminal about to commit a crime on a young person realizes through the broadcasting and through the dissemination of the information that is going to come from our action here today, we may be able to prevent serious crimes against our children. It is worth a chance for the deterrent value alone.”