THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170045
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Crime is a state and local matter, so anytime Washington gets involved it's reasonable to suspect politicians of grandstanding. The fact that crime bills appear every election year does little to allay such suspicions.
Last year, President Clinton sponsored a crime bill that unnecessarily federalized a slew of crimes and that would have sent money to the states for more cops, though they would have had to kick in some dollars themselves. The bill also called for more prisons and would have funded some crime-prevention programs for young people.
Republicans seized on midnight basketball and other provisions they could label pork and ran against the crime bill as not tough enough and filled with lunatic liberalism.
Now that Republicans are in charge of Congress, they are trying to repeal the parts they didn't like and replace mandated spending on cops with block grants that would let states and localities decide how to spend the federal money.
The House has now acted; Senate action is pending. However, the antagonists may be in danger of throwing out the baby with the bath water, or in this case the bacon with the midnight basketball. Clinton threatens a veto if the money mandated for police is tampered with. Republicans are equally dug in, having promised to revise Clinton's plan in the Contract With America. Neither side wants to be the first to blink. So states could wind up with less federal help fighting crime, not more.
Far from being a defining issue, this could turn into a merely confusing one. Conservatives can't agree among themselves about the right thing to do. Before he was speaker, Newt Gingrich heaped scorn on the idea that localities can be trusted to spend such grants without strings attached. Under President Nixon, similar block grants for law enforcement had a poor record. Small-town lawmen frequently spent their federal largesse on anti-riot gear and high-tech gizmos for which they had no use.
Perhaps the most refreshing comment comes from Princeton's John DiIulio who's quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying, ``Republican baloney is no better than Democratic pork.'' He has a point.
While the parties fight this out in Congress, states and localities would be wise to maintain an attitude of bemused pragmatism. They should be grateful for any money that comes their way. If too many strings are attached, they can always turn it down. But even if they take the loot, they should recall that what the grandstanders giveth, the grandstanders can taketh away.
Above all, states and localities should remember that Washington will eventually tire of the game and return to its own proper business. Then, crime and punishment will still be state and local problems. And that's where solutions will have to be found. by CNB