“The street criminal, the drugpusher, the mobster, the corrupt policeman, public official, they form their own criminal subculture. They contribute to and they prosper in a climate of lawlessness. They need each other. They use each other. They protect each other.” – U.S. President Ronald Reagan
On Oct. 14, 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan recommitted the United States to the war on drugs in a major announcement giving law enforcement enhanced tools to fight drug trafficking and organized crime in an eight-point plan. He spoke to a receptive audience in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The video is courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, with thanks.
An excerpt of the speech: "As all of you know, crime today is an American epidemic. It takes the lives of over 20,000 Americans a year, touches nearly a third of America's homes, and results in about $8.8 billion a year in financial losses. I've resisted figuring out and doing what is sometimes typical in remarks of this kind, and that is to tell you how many people are going to be murdered while I'm talking to you.
But these statistics suggest that our criminal justice system has broken down, that it just isn't working, and many Americans are losing faith in it. Nine out of ten Americans believe that the courts in their home areas aren't tough enough on criminals, and the cold statistics do demonstrate the failure of our criminal justice system to adequately pursue, prosecute, and punish criminals. In New York City, for example, less than 1 percent of reported felonies end in a prison term for the offender.
The perception is growing that the crime problem stems from the emergence of a new privileged class in America, a class of repeat offenders and career criminals who think they have a right to victimize their fellow citizens with virtual impunity. They're openly contemptuous of our way of justice. They don't believe they'll be caught, and if they are caught, they're confident that once their cases enter our legal system, the charges will be dropped, postponed, plea-bargained away, or lost in a maze of legal technicalities that make a mockery of our legitimate and honorable concern with civil liberties.
Once again the research shows that this common perception has a strong basis in fact. Just take one limited part of the crime picture. Transit police in New York estimate that only 500 habitual offenders were responsible for nearly half of the crimes committed in their subways last year. This rise in crime, this growth of a hardened criminal class, has partly been the result of misplaced government priorities and a misguided social philosophy.
At the root of this philosophy lies utopian presumptions about human nature that see man as primarily a creature of his material environment. By changing this environment through expensive social programs, this philosophy holds that government can permanently change man and usher in an era of prosperity and virtue. In much the same way, individual wrongdoing is seen as the result of poor socioeconomic conditions or an underprivileged background. This philosophy suggests in short that there is crime or wrongdoing, and that society, not the individual, is to blame.
But what has also become abundantly clear in the last few years is that a new political consensus among the American people utterly rejects this point of view....
Today, the power of organized crime reaches into every segment of our society. It is estimated that the syndicate has millions of dollars of assets in legitimate businesses. It controls corrupt union locals. It runs burglary rings. It fences for stolen goods, holds a virtual monopoly on the heroin trade. It thrives on illegal gambling, pornography, gun-running, ear theft, arson, and a host of other illegal activities. The existence of this nationwide criminal network and its willingness—and too often, its success—in corrupting and gaining protection from those in high places is an affront to every law-abiding American and an encouragement to every street punk or two-bit criminal who hopes some day to make it into the big time."
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Thanks for watching!
- The Mob Reporter

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