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Text of Remarks by the President to Be Delivered to the Forth Worth-Tarrant County Bar Association, Tarrant County Convention Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7343716
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Text of Remarks by the President to Be Delivered to the Forth Worth-Tarrant County Bar Association, Tarrant County Convention Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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1976-04-27
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1976
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Digitized from Box 25 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
April 27, 1976
6 A.M. EDT (5 A.M. CDT),
Wednesday, April 28, 1976
Office of the White House Press Secretary
(Shreveport, Louisiana)
THE WHITE HOUSE
TEXT OF REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO BE DELIVERED TO THE
FORT WORTH-TARRANT COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION, TARRANT COUNTY
CONVENTION CENTER, FORT WORTH, TEXAS
It is a great honor for me to be here this afternoon before the distinguished
members of the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Bar Association, the Federal
Bar Association, and the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Young Lawyers
Association.
It is a special privilege for me to be speaking to you just two days before
we celebrate Law Day all across the United States. The rule of law is
the very foundation of any rational society. And the rule of laws created by
the people, which the people willingly obey, is central to a free and
democratic soci ety.
In our Bicentennial year, Law Day takes on special significance. For our
F ounding Fathers, in establishing this country, dared to put the ultimate
authority into the hands of those described in the first three words of the
Constitution: We, the People.
Not all men accepted this idea. Thomas Jefferson, in his first Inaugural.
Address, recognized that some honest men feared a Republican Government
could not be strong. But Jefferson disagreed with them. He believed this
to be the strongest Government on earth. He said: "I believe it the only one
where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law,
and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern."
Jefferson touched the verv heart of our national faith. He said history
would tell whether men could be trusted to govern themselves. And history
has its answer. Two centuries later, the United States of America is still
a country where the people make the laws, and the people obey them. And
the United States of America still has the strongest and freest form of
Government on earth, and that's why we can say--we are proud to be
Americans.
Now We are on the threshold of our third century. I see this as the century
of individual freedom, in which individuals will increasingly fulfill them-
selves and achieve their natural potential. For this to be the century of
individual freedom, it must be the century of individual security.
For the law to provide that security, we must have laws that are respected.
We must keep the law alive by making sure that it changes to meet the
changing needs of our society.
(More)
-2
While protecting the rights of the accused, our emphasis must always be on
protecting the rights of the victim. The victim must be our primary concern,
and the law must be our means of fulfilling the promise in our Constitution:
to ensure domestic tranquility.
We must continue working to identify and solve those social and institutional
problems which cause crime in the first place, But there are also new efforts
we can make, and have been making, to fight crime by improving the admin-
istration of justice. We must ensure that the law is administered fairly,
swiftly and surely.
One of my earliest concerns as President was to seek some cures for our
crime problem a problem which has been growing for more than fifty years.
I put crime control among the top items on our national agenda. In 1975 we
saw the rate of increase in crime drop substantially, from 17 percent in 1974 -
to 9 percent.
And we have found some productive ways to deal with crime by providing ideas
and Federal seed money to the state and local authorities who have the respon-
sibility for most criminal prosecution.
Here in Tarrant County, for example, the Law Enforcement Assistance Adminis-
tration will have provided almost $2 million in aid to the District Attorney's
Office from 1973 to 1978.
The money has been used imaginatively by your local law enforcement agencies
to serve many purposes. It has helped your attorneys to use their time and
talents more effectively, by providing administrative help, continuous
training, and capital improvements such as computers.
One very important function it has served has been to put prosecuting attorneys
in direct and immediate contact with police officers. By screening the cases
as they are brought in, prosecution has been made more effective. This has
helped to relieve overcrowding in the courts, which all too often lets criminals
hide behind the logjam.
We must continue our efforts at the Federal level to help local authorities
improve their administration of justice. That is why I have recommended
that funding for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration be extended
through 1981, so that programs like these may continue, and so that we can
confront special crime problems.
For example, the L. E.A.A. last year finished a report on rape and its
victims, and is currently sponsoring a major national survey on that subject.
The studies will help local authorities to deal more sensitively with rape
victims, and will aid in the prosecution of rapists. Over $18 million of
L. E. A. A. funds have been used by state and local authorities to find more
effective ways of dealing with rape.
In another area, I am pleased to note that today the L. E. A. A. and the admin-
istration on the aging are signing an agreement which will help to target law
enforcement resources on the criminal threat to the elderly.
Still another program with special promise was instituted at my direction,
shortly after I took office.
In September of 1974, I directed the Justice Department to undertake, in
connection with state and local government, a career criminal impact program.
MORE
-3-
The career criminal program is founded on a very basic truth: most Americans
are law-abiding, and the vast majority of serious crimes in this country are
committed by a small minority of habitual offenders.
This small minority has chosen to place itself outside society, committing
criminal acts not once but again and again. They are a chronic threat to our
security. We must identify them, bring them to justice, and make their
punishment swift and certain.
Here in Texas, two career criminal programs are underway. In Houston, one
program began in July of last year. And today, the average time from arrest
to indictment is nine days for those identified as career criminals, versus
42 days for other criminal cases. The time from arrest to trial for career
criminal defendants is a month less than for other criminal defendants.
Sentences have averaged 25. 8 years.
And most important of all since this program got underway in Houston,
there has been a significant decrease in the number of armed robberies
compared to the year before.
Not far from here, in Dallas, another career criminal program has been in
effect for the last six months. In that brief time it has zeroed in on 23 third-
time offenders. It has shown the career criminal what awaits him. Of those
23, twenty have received life sentences, and three received 40 year sentences.
Let me make clear that we do not pursue this swift justice and these heavy
sentences out of vindictiveness. I believe that in general we must do everything
we can to rehabilitate those who have committed crimes, and to help them
regain their place in society.
But for these career criminals, rehabilitation has obviously failed. These
individuals have all been to correctional institutions before, and they have
demonstrated that for them, at least, rehabilitation programs have served no
useful purpose.
Therefore, our duty is to protect their innocent victims -- and pot ential
victims by separating these career criminals from society, and by keeping
them confined for a longer period of time.
Through programs such as this, we can help relieve the American people of a
terrible threat to their lives and safety. By combatting crime, we reaffirm the
right of every American to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We must not be content until the potential criminal faces arrest so certain,
punishment so heavy, that he will lose taste for acts of crime and violence.
Let me summarize the actions I have taken to reduce crime in America. In
addition to instituting the career criminal program, and recommending the
extension of funds for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration:
-
-- My budget for fiscal year 1977 provides funds for four new Federal
prisons:
-- I have asked the Department of Justice to develop new programs to
protect and assist all witnesses in Federal criminal proceedings;
-- While supporting the right of law abiding citizens to own firearms,
I have recommended legislation which would make mandatory
sentences for those who use a gun in the commission of a Federal
crime.
MORE
- 4 -
I have intensified the fight against hard drugs, which we all know are
connected with crime. Just yesterday, I sent to the Congress a special
message on druge abuse calling for mandatory minimum prison sen-
tences for those convicted of trafficking in hard drugs.
I have consulted with the leaders of Mexico, Colombia and Turkey to
urge stronger action by them in cooperating with us to halt the flow of
hard drugs into the United States. And I have recommended that the
Congress increase Federal funds to get drug addicts into treatment and
out of crime. We are spending ten times more Federal funds on drug
prevention, treatment and rehabilitation this year than we spent just
seven years ago.
-- In addition to mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers and
for Federal crimes involving the use of dangerous weapons, I have
recommended to the Congress mandatory minimum sentences for
repeat offenders who commit violent crimes, and for criminals guilty
of grave offenses such as aircrafthijacking and kidnapping.
All our efforts in these many areas have been aimed at ensuring domestic
tranquility and the rule of law. But let us remember that crime is just one
threat to the peace and security of all Americans. At the Federal level, we
must fulfill our obligation to provide national security as well as personal
security. Until we can achieve the rule of law in the global sense, a strong
military capability is essential.
The American people must be kept secure and free from the threat of outside
attack. This means we must maintain our high state of military readiness-
and we will. We will continue to ensure that the United States of America is
unsurpassed in military capability.
Here in Texas, you play an important part in maintaining our national security.
Your aerospace industry keeps us strong, helps us in the search for new ways
to deter aggression, and I salute you for it.
The Defense program I am proposing will mean that the United States will
remain unsurpassed for years to come.
-- Just about three weeks ago, we laid the keel for the first of a new
class of nuclear submarines to be armed with the most accurate sub-
marine ballistic missiles in the world. This Trident Missile Fleet
will be the foundation for a formidable, technologically superior force
through the 1980's.
--
We are now completing final testing on the world's most modern and
capable strategic bomber, the B-1. And I have budgeted over one and
a half billion dollars for its production in fiscal year 1977.
-- We are accelerating work on a new intercontinental ballistic missile
for the 1980's;
-- We are developing a new cruise missile for our air and naval forces.
-- Nor does our effort stop with weapons, for we are also expanding our
Army from 13 to 16 combat divisions.
I pledge that we will keep America strong. Not strong for the sake of war--
but strong for the sake of peace. We will continue our policy of peace through
strength. And at the same time, we will maintain our role of international
leadership negotiating wherever possible to reduce the level of tensions in
the world.
There are no easy answers, no simple solutions to the complex problems of
personal and national security. But our determination to solve these problems
is in itself a source of strength. And our warning to those who threaten our
security, at home or abroad, is the same: Americans will never be inti-
midated, and Americans will keep the security and independence we have had
for 200 years.
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