Curtis Sliwa Quotes

From a parent's right to know what their children are doing, to protecting citizens across the country from the growing threat of gang violence, the House Democrat leadership is simply out to lunch.

We need to send a clear message to gang members that violent crime will not be tolerated.

We will not rest until being a gang member is a miserable, undesirable life.

Chicago is where the whole idea of community policing began. It remains the - the best and the most comprehensive approach we have in changing the everyday conditions that breed crime and violence - and then breed mistrust. We have more work to do. We need better training to live up to the values and the principles of community policing.

Let's talk about the real issues of crime which people are worried about. What people are worried about is the rise in violent crime. We believe that more community policemen and women are part of the answer to this.

Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.

I want to again highlight the desperate need for us to pull together - the world over - to tackle knife crime and teach everyone how sacred a life is.

Unfortunately, my district like many others across the country has a problem with gangs, which is why I introduced this amendment.

Our communities face many challenges, from keeping our kids safe in public, to the war on terrorism. But few have such immediate consequences as we face from methamphetamine.

We improved the environment in which our children live, learn and play by decreasing crime and clamping down on abuse and violence in the home and on the streets.

If the police can shoot a criminal, then why can't we take action against those who are poisoning our society?

Anyone who knows gangs knows that lawmakers cannot conceive of a law that would lead a hard-core gang member to 'think twice.'

In Chicago in 2000, the Cure Violence health approach saw a 67 percent decline in shootings and killings, which soon replicated to 70 communities nationwide with multiple independent evaluations from world-renowned institutions, such as the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Knife crime isn't an issue that's going to go away just because of repression and police action. Of course we need to support the forces, but it's linked to prevention, and prevention often comes through education.

Gangs are a part of living in Los Angeles, but you can exist in Inglewood or Culver City or anywhere else, without joining one.

I'm really looking for an agenda that looks at safety for our communities beyond policing.

We have to protect our inner cities, because African-American communities are being decimated by crime, decimated.

We're going to build the bridge to the 21st century, we have to make our children free - free of the vise grip of guns and gangs and drugs; free to build lives of hope.

We must stand our ground to ensure that our laws reduce violence and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent.

I believe in community policing. And, in fact, violent crime is one-half of what it was in 1991.

We've directed the creation of a task force for reducing violent crime in America, including the horrendous situation - take a look at Chicago and others - taking place right now in our inner cities.

Here's what I learned as a mayor and a governor. The way you make communities safer and the way you make police safer is through community policing. You build the bonds between the community and the police force, build bonds of understanding, and then when people feel comfortable in their communities, that gap between the police and the communities they serve narrows. And when that gap narrows, it's safer for the communities and it's safer for the police.

Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.

We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they're illegally here, illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very strong. And we have to be very vigilant.

It is high time for society to stop worrying about the criminal, and to let the criminal start worrying about society. And by "society" I mean you.