Must Keep Children Away From Crime, Clinton Says

President Clinton decried youth violence Monday, reminding a convention of police officers of a recent Chicago tragedy in which two boys, 10 and 11, murdered a 5-year-old who had refused to steal.

“We can hire 5 million police officers and, if we keep losing the battle for what these kids think is right and wrong, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” he said.

“Kids are going to look up to somebody,” Clinton said. “It’s up to the adults in this country to decide who they’re going to look up to.”

America has many resources to carry it into the future, Clinton said. “But what we must be worried about is wave upon wave upon wave of these little children who don’t have somebody both good and strong to look up to, who are so vulnerable that their hearts can be turned to stone by the time they’re 10 or 11 years old.”

As is often the case, those remarks--which formed the emotional highlight of Clinton’s speech--came as a departure from his prepared text. Aides said that Clinton penned the thoughts while flying here from Washington, adding them to a text initially focused on the anti-crime bill that passed Congress in August.

Clinton’s speech, to the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, came as part of a continuing campaign by the Administration to rehabilitate the anti-crime bill, which has come under unrelenting attack from Republicans, who have attempted--with some success--to hang the “pork” label on the package.

Responding to that charge, Clinton told the convention that with the bill now law, federal and local officials together must “demonstrate to our people that the money is being well spent.

“For most of its life, this crime bill enjoyed broad, bipartisan support,” Clinton said. But, he said, the bill “became a political football” at the end of the process.

“We must never again permit crime to be divisive in a partisan political way,” Clinton declared. He almost immediately followed that declaration with an attack on Republicans, suggesting that the GOP’s pledge to both balance the federal budget and cut taxes would require “cuts in everything else” including “this crime bill.”

Clinton’s remarks generally were well received by his audience. White House officials hope that personal endorsements of the crime bill’s provisions by local law enforcement officials will help refurbish the image of the package. In a further effort toward that end, the Administration has begun rapidly distributing the money for more police officers contained in the bill, releasing the first round of grants last week.

In his speech, Clinton announced new rules designed to speed up additional grants. The rules will allow many cities to hire additional officers before actually receiving their federal money, with Washington paying part of the payroll costs once the officers are sworn in.