ACCESSION NUMBER:294569
FILE ID:NEA211
DATE:07/13/93
TITLE:RENO CONDEMNS HATE CRIMES, CALLS FOR RETURN TO VALUES (07/13/93)
TEXT:*93071311.NEA reno on hate crimes at b'nai b'rith/#mcj yb sa kf
*NEA211 07/13/93 *
RENO CONDEMNS HATE CRIMES, CALLS FOR RETURN TO VALUES
(Attorney General addresses B'nai B'rith) (620)
By M. C. Jaspersen
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- Unless the American people and people everywhere resolve to
fight bigotry, it could destroy the world as we know it, says U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno.
1
"Each of us could make a difference in combating bigotry, in combating hate,
and each one of us must stand, any time we see it, and speak out against
it, and fight against it, or otherwise, we will see this world engulfed in
it," Reno warned here July 13.
America's highest law enforcement official was addressing the District Five
Convention of B'nai B'rith, an organization founded in New York in 1843 to
fight anti-semitism and other forms of bigotry.
Reno, who as prosecutor in Florida prosecuted hate crime under new U.S.
anti-bias laws, said she would like to see more effective hate-crimes laws
enacted. But they should not impinge on individual rights, she said.
Reno said that the time has also come to take "a hard-nosed look at what
works and what doesn't work -- what we can pay for and what we can't pay
for."
Reno pointed out that while judges and prosecutors can successfully
prosecute and sentence a criminal to jail, serious prison overcrowding
allows many of these dangerous criminals to be set free, while first-time
drug offenders, who receive mandatory sentences, will remain in jail
instead of undergoing treatment.
"It is imperative," she said, that law officials "work together to make sure
that we prioritize the crimes in America, and that the dangerous offender
-- the offender who conveys hate, the career criminal" remains
incarcerated.
Above all, she said, it is time to realize that behavior is shaped before
the age of three, "when a child develops a concept of reward and
punishment, and develops a conscience." This fact, she added, makes
parents invaluable in forming the future of society. It is essential, Reno
said, to focus on giving parents the tools and the time they need to raise
children to be responsible, caring members of society.
"The first thing that we have got to do in America, is make sure that we
have parents who are old enough, wise enough, and financially able enough
to take care of their children." Society has to focus on the problem of
teen pregnancy as well as on developing a workplace that would allow
parents "to have quality time that they can spend with their children."
Asked about U.S. immigration problems, Reno said there is no simple solution
when the nation's borders are not easily controlled.
She said it is essential that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service become an "equal partner" with its Department of State and its
foreign intelligence services so that together they can work at stemming
illegal immigration at the source.
The United States must "deal with other nations in terms of trying to
develop some equity, so that people will not seek haven here," she said.
"I cannot tell you how important it is that we approach this issue with
calmness, with civility towards others," she said. "It is going to be
terribly important that we work through this whole problem of immigration
in a thoughtful way, (one) that considers others, respects others, but
develops laws that can keep the people here that belong here, and quickly,
constitutionally, get the people out who don't belong here, and then do
everything that's reasonably possible and cost effective to keep them out
in the first place."
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