Clinton Renews Bid for Anti-Crime Bill : Legislation: Hiring more police would be best way to halt epidemic of violence, President tells radio audience.

President Clinton continued his campaign against crime Saturday, stressing that hiring more police officers would be the most effective step to reduce the “epidemic of violence” and urging Americans to lobby for a tough crime bill.

“Now that Congress is home for the holidays, tell your senators and representatives to pass a strong crime bill so your family can be safer,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address. “I’d like to suggest a New Year’s resolution for every senator and every representative: Let’s pass the crime bill as soon as you return.”

His remarks came one day after Senate Republican leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) criticized the President for pressing for stringent gun control measures at a time when, Dole said, he should be devoting energies to pushing for tough anti-crime elements of the pending crime legislation.

As if responding to Dole, Clinton did not mention additional gun controls in his address, and he did talk about some elements of the crime measure.

The Senate has approved legislation that would put 100,000 more police officers on the streets, prohibit assault weapons and provide funding for boot camps for first-time offenders. But the version passed in the House approves only 50,000 new officers. The President wants Congress to choose the Senate bill when leaders of the two chambers meet to reconcile the differences early next year.

“Putting more police on the streets will do more to reduce crime than anything else we can do,” Clinton said.

The crime bill would also put restrictions on semi-automatic weapons, which could have prevented the gunman on the Long Island Rail Road from having the two 15-bullet clips that enabled him to kill five people and injure 18 others “with such deadly speed,” the President said.

In a Republican response to the President’s address, Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato of New York said putting more criminals in jail is the most effective move the government can make to decrease crime.

“Everyone knows the answer to the problem except the politicians in Washington and the state capitals,” D’Amato said. “Americans know that the best way to protect themselves is to put violent criminals in jail and keep them there. It’s that simple.”

The remarks by the President and the senator reflect the renewed fervor over crime and violence that has taken hold in Washington since it emerged as the central issue in several elections this fall.

Clinton said the Long Island Rail Road shootings and the discovery of the body of 12-year-old Polly Klass of Petaluma were examples of crime that should move Americans to stand up to violence any way they can.

“Let’s face it: drugs and guns and violence fill a vacuum where the values of civilized life used to be,” he said.

The President praised Los Angeles radio stations KACE and KJLH and a New York company with five radio stations around the country for their recent decisions not to air songs that advocate violence or show contempt for women.

“Whether we are ministers or movie makers, business people or broadcasters, teachers or parents, we can all set our sons and daughters on a better path in life, so they can learn and love and lead decent and productive lives,” Clinton said.

“In this holiday season, as we rejoice in the love of our families and hold our children a little closer, we should also strengthen the bonds of community. We can make our neighborhoods and our nations places of shared responsibility, not random violence.”