Political Quotes

“the debate that we are having today focuses on the specific issue of community police. I would like, at a later point, to discuss some of my opinions and observations about this particular form of use of police personnel from a recent experience in a specific community in my State of Florida. But as a context of this, I would like to raise the question of what is the appropriate Federal, State, local role in law enforcement? What should be the nature of the Federal Government's participation in our collective efforts to provide security to our homes, our neighborhoods, our States, and our Nation? Let me suggest just three items that I think are important principles for that relationship and for the Federal role. First is that the Federal Government must fulfill its own specific and singular obligations. Mr. President, that sounds obvious. Of course, the Federal Government ought to fulfill its obligations. Unfortunately, there have been too many instances in which that has not been the case and in which other levels of government, therefore, were forced to divert their resources to carry out what otherwise would have been a Federal responsibility.”