Proud of Record in Fight Against Crime, Dukakis Says, Citing His State’s Low Rate

Posing with tough-faced state troopers and touting Massachusetts’ low crime rate, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis on Wednesday spent his third day in a row campaigning on the crime issue.

With Republican strategists hoping to tag the Democratic nominee-in-waiting as “soft on crime,” Dukakis has moved quickly to try to get his side of the debate out first--picking settings that highlight successful anti-crime programs he has pushed or that point up flaws in the record of his presumed opponent, Vice President George Bush.

“I’m very proud of the record of this state,” Dukakis said, when asked about the Republican attacks on his crime record.

“I really am not concerned about the opposition party. They’ve got lots of answering to do for what’s been happening over the last seven or eight years.”

Bush has attacked Dukakis repeatedly on at least one aspect of his crime record--a furlough program for state prisoners that allowed a convicted murderer to escape last year and rape a woman in Maryland.

At a brief press conference after meeting with his statewide anti-crime council here, Dukakis repeated his accusation that the Administration has mismanaged the war on drugs.

Referring to a campaign stop Tuesday in which he toured a Coast Guard anti-drug patrol ship that has been idled by federal budget cuts, Dukakis said: “I got to tell you it energizes me on the presidential trail. How can we possibly be serious about fighting a war against drugs when we cut back on Coast Guard patrols by 55%?”

‘Shrill Political Issue’

Meanwhile, in Washington, Bush was defending the Administration’s drug-fighting efforts and charging that Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson were trying to make drugs a “shrill political issue.” Paradoxically, Bush made his remarks as he gathered with Republican legislators to praise a series of anti-drug proposals authored by the GOP’s House Task Force on Drugs.

“I’m sick and tired at the level of politics I’m involved in, of hearing the Democrats do nothing but tear down and criticize,” said Bush, “and I’m talking about Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson for the last two months.”

Bush mentioned by name two U.S. agents killed in the line of duty--FBI agent Jesse Rios, killed in a drug-related shoot-out in Florida, and Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena, tortured and killed in Mexico--and said their work indicates “a lot’s been done.”

“Now there’s more to be done, yes,” the vice president said. “ . . . But if you listen to what the Democrats are doing out there at the national level it has become--they’re trying to make it into a shrill political issue.”

Bush called the Republican package “better than anything the Democrats are going to dream up.”

Among other things, the package calls for two items Bush has pushed in his campaign, a death penalty for “drug kingpins” and a requirement that federal contractors establish drug-free environments. In a question-and-answer session after his appearance, Bush reasserted his support for the Administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” program, under which federal officials can seize boats and other property if they find evidence of drug use aboard.

“If some yacht owner is inconvenienced, too damn bad,” Bush said.

Dukakis, in his press conference, also endorsed the recommendations issued earlier this month by the President’s AIDS commission, which called for a major increase in spending on programs to fight the disease as well as legislation to prohibit discrimination against AIDS patients and those testing positive for the AIDS virus.

The Administration has not yet taken a position on the commission’s recommendations.

Dukakis called the recommendations “very consistent with the kinds of efforts we’ve made in this state. . . . I think it’s a good blueprint for the future, I’m impressed, and I hope to move forward on it.”

As President, he said, he would press Congress to enact anti-discrimination legislation of the sort advocated by the commission chairman, Adm. James D. Watkins. Similar legislation has been stalled in Congress by conservative opposition.

Meanwhile, Dukakis’ Statehouse aides met with legislative leaders to try to complete work on a solution to the state’s current $400-million revenue shortfall. With the state’s fiscal year ending in just over two weeks, Dukakis must make a series of decisions about spending cuts and proposed increases in state cigarette taxes, corporate taxes and license fees.

David Lauter reported from Framingham, Mass., and Cathleen Decker from Washington.