Extensions of Remarks

25830 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS September 27, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS LEST WE FORGET legal heroin into this nation jump from tion" program which, by the Government's under 5 tons to around 10 tons; and we have own evaluation, is doing more harm than experienced an increase of 60 percent in the good. Particularly in the area of drug films, HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY number of violent crimes committed. the Administration's use of overly simplistic OF MISSOURI In the area of drug abuse and crime pre approaches bolstered with twisted or inaccu IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES vention, despite any claims to the contrary, rate misinformation has succeeded mainly Tuesday, September 27, 1988 the real state of the union after four years in convincing some formerly uninterested of the Nixon Administration is a sorry one youths to try drugs out of curiosity. Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, last week the at best. I am sure the nation's pushers are ex House of Representatives overwhelmingly During the last year of the Johnson Ad tremely pleased with the state of the union passed the ominous drug bill. A majority of the ministration, 4,500,000 serious crimes were when the Federal Government helps them members of the Congressional Black Caucus reported. In 1971, after three years of the sell their deadly goods. Nixon Administration, 6 million serious voted against final passage of this bill. Our op crimes were reported; and this was to have U.S. AIDS ASIAN HEROIN TRADE position was not based on a lack of concern been a "law and order" administration. While this stream of daily death pours for the pervasive problem of drugs but rather In two of the communities I represent, the into every comer of our society, this Admin on a greater concern for the need to uphold Harlem and East Harlem sections of New istration has seen fit to subsidize, with tax the individual freedoms and constitutional pro York City, the ever-present crime is inextri dollars, the Air American Company. This tections of American citizens. cably bound to the plague of drug addiction. company, according to Congressional stud While we praise our colleague and fellow As in communities across this nation, be ies, aids in the transport of heroin from tween 50 and 70 percent of crime in these Southeast Asian poppy fields to nearby re member of the Congressional Black Caucus, two communities is drug-related. fineries. "Air Heroin", as Air America is CHARLES RANGEL, for the leadership he pro In fact, the problems of these communi sometimes called, travels its routes of death vided in managing the bill on the floor of the ties are but a small sample of the picture and destruction under the supervision of House; the addition of the death penalty, the across the country. A recent Gallup poll of the corrupt generals and government offi relaxation of the exclusionary rule, the de urban residents showed crime in the streets cials in the totalitarian dictatorship of the criminalization of the possession of narcotics, identified as the most important problem Thieu regime in South Vietnam. This is and other mischievous amendments opposed facing America today. One in three of these happening at the same time the Administra by Mr. RANGEL gravely damaged our constitu persons had been a victim of crimes against tion has seen fit to refuse to provide money person or property, with one in five among for adequate cemeteries to bury the thou tional freedoms. all Americans being personally victimized. sands of Americans who died so that "de Lest we forget, Mr. Speaker, it was black An examination of the Harlem section of mocracy" might flourish in Vietnam. Members of this Congress under the leader New York does present, however, some clear ship of CHARLES RANGEL who initially raised evidence of what the future holds and what ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION FLOURISH the issue of the dangers of drugs to our socie the present is like for other areas. This is the real state of the union. In addi According to an extensive survey of the tion, only this year have the nation's crimi ty. Seventeen years ago, in a White House nal investigation agencies taken their heads meeting with President Richard M. Nixon on Harlem community by the Small Business Chamber of Commerce of New York, 51.2 out from under the nineteenth century to March 25, 1971, we presented the President percent of those interviewed said they had see the corrupting, cancerous criminal influ with an indepth analysis of the drug problem been victims of criminal assault during 1970. ence exerted by the Mafia and its followers. and attempted to enlist his assistance in Sixty-nine percent of those interviewed The Knapp Commission report and other making the illegal trafficking of narcotics a pri blamed the narcotics addict for the recent studies tell us that the New York City and ority item on our national agenda. The critical increase of crime in Harlem. other police departments are riddled with question is why was drug abuse not a national In a study conducted by the New York the kind of corruption that only the orga State Narcotic Addiction Control Commis nized forces of international crime can gen concern 17 years ago? Or should we ask, why erate. But this Administration's so-called is it of such grave concern today to those sion, 11,762 of the 52,479 narcotic arrests in New York City for 1971, or one in four Department of Justice spends its time filing Members of Congress who totally ignored our cases, occurred in Harlem. suits to block the court and Congressional admonitions for the last 17 years? Even more alarming than the stark statis ly-ordered integration of the nation's But, Mr. Speaker, lest we forget, I am sub tics on drug addiction and crime is the schools. This too, is the real state of the mitting the statement drafted by Representa effect of these forces on my District and the nation. tive CHARLES RANGEL and presented by the rest of the nation. The Fleischmann Com ANTIADDICTION EFFORT NOT INCLUDED IN Congressional Black Caucus in 1973 in our mission study of New York's schools and the ANNOUNCED " WAR ON CRIME" "True State of the Union Address." If my col roving hearings held by the House Select The inevitable link between heroin addic leagues will take note, we in the Black Caucus Committee on Crime found evidence that tion and the criminal justice system necessi between 40 and 50 percent of this nation's have not changed our positions or waned in tates an increased commitment of Federal high school students have used or are using funds to permit the criminal justice system our concern about the drug problem in the some form of mind-altering drug. last 17 years. to respond to the special problems present Reports from Miami to Seattle tell of 8- ed by narcotics addiction. In his response to CRIME AND NARCOTICS ADDICTION year-olds beginning to experiment with the recommendations of the Congressional (By Congressman Charles B. Rangel) drugs and cases of heroin addicts who are Black Caucus in 1971, President Nixon President Nixon attempted to give the im this young are not uncommon in areas of stated that the Law Enforcement Assistance pression of significant progress in the drug high addiction concentration. Administration was providing the impetus and crime war by his May 1971 responses to The National Institute of Mental Health for the development of new and effective the recommendations of the Congressional reported that in 1971, for example, there programs to reduce crime. The record of the Black Caucus. But. the claims of tremen were 18,000 addicts living in a 40-block area nineteen months which have passed since dous efforts in law enforcement, drug reha in Central Harlem. Of these, approximately this Presidential response shows clearly bilitation, and education do not begin to 6,000 were between 16 and 21 years of age, that LEAA has not addressed the problem paint an accurate picture. and 2,000 were between 7 and 15 years old. of drug-related crime. During the first four years of the Nixon There are an estimated 40,000 addicts in all While LEAA funds have been invested in Administration, we have seen the narcotics of Harlem, about one in every 6 people. bigger and better armaments, including addict population in this nation double in DRUG EDUCATION A FAILURE police toys, such as tanks and armored heli size; we have watched the spread of heroin In the face of these kinds of staggering copters, the severe problems of revolving and other harmful drugs to our elementary problems, the Nixon Administration door justice for narcotics addicts have gone school children; we have seen the flow of il- launched a "drug education by horrifica- largely untouched by LEAA. Narcotics ad- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. --··----·- - ,.--=-~~~1'"- September 27, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 25831 diets typically are arrested, let loose on bail proaches to the rehabilitation of narcotic and counseling services to meet the needs of and often are re-arrested before trial on the addicts, and more coordinated Federal re our low income communities and the nation first offense because of their continued sponsibility for the drug problem and spoke generally. need to steal to support their habit.

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