Political Quotes

“Willie Sutton would love it if the cops weren't trying to protect the banks--that would be great--but the cops are important. Mr. Chairman, my first job out of law school was as an attorney for the Memphis Police Department. One of the first things I learned is that the best deterrent to crime is patrol, and patrol is policemen on the beat. That is the most effective way to reduce crime. When you have high unemployment, when you have a great recession like we've experienced with high unemployment, crime naturally does go up. When you have crime go up, you need more cops to protect property and individuals and lives. This COPS program has been successful. It was successful in the 1990s, and we saw a tremendous decrease in crime. As Mr. Weiner pointed out--and I praise him for being a champion of this for so many years-- this has been an effective program that has saved lives and property, that has kept insurance rates down, and that has kept order and liberty in our country. Willie Sutton would not be for this amendment. He'd like to see the cops off the streets, away from the banks, away from the widows, away from the children, away from everybody who is in the arms of a potential crime, in the way of a potential crime, and that's something we shouldn't have in this country. The cost to get rid of this program would be tremendous. The fact is the COPS program saves money, and this amendment zeros out the COPS program.…”