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323154876
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DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] Headquarters, New York, NY 6/29/92 [OA 8130]
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323154876
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document
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DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] Headquarters, New York, NY 6/29/92 [OA 8130]
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13890-018
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Curt Smith Chronological Files
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FOIA Number:
Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection: George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Smith, Curt, Files
Subseries:
Chron File, 1989-1992
OA/ID Number:
13890
Folder ID Number:
13890-018
Folder Title:
DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] Headquarters, New York, New York, 6/29/92
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
18
29
1
6
Document No. 334903ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
6/24/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: THURS. 6/25 2:00pm
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DEA HEADQUARTERS
SUBJECT:
NEW YORK - MONDAY, JUNE 29
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT N/C
MOORE to Dan
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
SMITH
CALIO
N/C
YEUTTER
+
DEMAREST
FINDLAY
FITZWATER
KAUFMAN
GRAY
NIC
MARTINĘZ
HOLIDAY
MCGROARTY
REMARKS:
Please forward your comments directly to Dan McGroarty, Rm. 122,
x2930, no later than 2:00 p.m., THURSDAY, JUNE 25, with a copy
to this office. Thank you.
RESPONSE:
CALL ASAP
commats
due ASAP
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Aarhus)
Draft Four
June 24, 1992
22 JUN 24 All : 36
DEA
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DEA HEADQUARTERS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1992
Acknowledgements. Members of the DEA's New York Field
Division. Ladies and gentlemen. / ( (It is a great privilege to
be here today to discuss a problem of great concern to New
Yorkers. / But before I get to the hitting woes of Bobby Bonilla
and Don Mattingly.)) //
( (We meet at the end of a hectic month. When President
Yeltsin was in Washington several weeks ago he asked if I still
thought the day-of the dictator was over. / I said I did, and he
said, "So who's this 'Steinbrenner' I keep hearing about?") ) //
Today, we VOW that America hears this message: It is time
we reject those who soft-pedal the need to be hard on crime. /
Some say there are reasons crimes occur. I say there is never an
excuse not to seek justice through America's system of law. //
Nowhere is this need clearer than in our war on drugs -- a
war this new office of the Drug Enforcement Administration can
help fight, and win. / As long as one American is hooked on
drugs -- that is one American too many. So we must stop drug
use. Not some place. Not some time. But across America -- now.
That's why our Federal budget for Fiscal Year 1992 called
for $11.7 billion for our anti-drug campaign. That's $11.7
billion -- up 82 per cent since the start of our Administration.
/ We'd hoped to cut overall drug use by 10 percent. We met that
2
target. / We wanted to slash occasional cocaine use 10 percent.
It's down 29. / Adolescent cocaine use -- our goal was a 30
percent decrease. It's down more than 60. /
We have begun well. Yet we have only begun. /
Look at Bedford Stuyvesant / the suburbs of any city / the
broken canyons of L.A. / There you'll see some of the more than
12.5 million Americans who use drugs -- and the 1.9 million,
cocaine. Worse, more than 1.3 million of our kids use drugs. I
grieve for these kids -- but grief is not enough. Just as while
Federal funding can help -- it alone is not enough. //
Today, we need effective treatment -- Federal, state, and
local -- to reduce drug use in our neighborhoods and schools. /
We also need prevention through massive education. We need
business / labor / our families and schools to stop the drugs
that declare death, bondage, and open season on the innocent. //
Next comes perhaps the most crucial part of our crusade:
Law enforcement. The New York Field Division seized more than
$234 million in criminal assets in FY 1991. You know that a
country which refused to allow totalitarians of the right and
left to enslave the world -- will never allow the evil purveyors
of drugs to enslave America. //
Think of names like Tommy Pitera -- a.k.a. Tommy Karate /
the Cali Cartel cocaine seizure / Helmer and Ramiro Herrera. By
the next time you're at the White House -- I hope all these hoods
are in the Big House. So by January 1, we will have 50 percent
more Federal prosecutors than in 1988. / We have also
3
reauthorized the 1984 Victims of Crime Act -- and boosted its
annual Victims Compensation and Assistance Fund to $150 million.
These dollars did not come from taxpayers but from criminals'
fines and penalties. After all, crime shouldn't pay. Criminals
should. //
So we have moved to punish career criminals under the
Federal Armed Criminal Act. No seasoned criminal should walk
free because we didn't take the law -- and our law enforcement
officers -- seriously. / My Administration has proposed $14.8
billion for anti-crime policies for FY 1993 -- that's up 59
percent in four years. / Yet progress made is not mission
accomplished. So I call on the Congress to pass crime
legislation that will not weaken current law. Let's back up our
law enforcement officials with laws that are fair, fast, and
final. /
You know what I'm talking about. Fair: We want an
exclusionary rule designed to punish guilty criminals -- not good
cops who act in good faith. / Fast: We need habeus corpus
reforms to stop the frivolous appeals choking our courts. /
Crime's victims must not suffer twice: Once, when they are
victimized by the criminal. Again, when misguided policies allow
criminals to escape scot-free through some loophole in the law. /
We also need laws that are final -- and you know my belief: For
anyone who kills a law enforcement officer -- no penalty is too
tough. When drug kingpins inflict the ultimate evil on society -
- society demands that the ultimate penalty be inflicted on them.
4
Some say that legalization of drugs is the answer to drugs.
I say: We must never wave the white flag of surrender at the
white scourge of cocaine. // So today, I ask Congress to pass
crime legislation based on three principles. If criminals commit
crimes, they will be caught. If caught, they will be tried. And
if convicted, they will be punished. /
We need a crime bill which strengthens -- not weakens -- our
ability to uphold the laws -- a crime bill like the Crime Control
Act of 1992. / We need a bill that will take thugs off the
streets -- so that Americans can take back the streets. /
So let's pass this bill -- and salute those who risk their
lives to save ours. / Your work isn't a nine to five job, with
martini lunches and friendly chats around the water cooler. It's
danger. It's fear. It's not knowing whether you'll end your
shift going home in a car -- or to the emergency room in an
ambulance. //
Today, I stand against those who use films -- or records,
television, and video games -- to glorify killing law enforcement
offiers. Instead, I say it proudly: I stand with the greatest
freedom-fighters any Nation could have. Heroes who provide
freedom from violence. / Freedom from drugs. / Freedom from
fear. /
In that spirit, I am now honored to officially open the
regional headquarters of this country's finest -- the New York
Drug Enforcement Administration. God bless the United States of
America.