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Show Crime: Ho. 1 Problem In Communities A recent bulletin from FBI director Clarence M. Kelley, said that a redent poll revealed that residents of the Nation's largest cities consider con-sider crime as the worst problem facing their communities. com-munities. THIS WAS in sharp contrast to a similar poll taken in 1949 when big-city dwellers ranked crime far down among the items on their lists of major civic problems. Kelley continued, "What is surprising-indeed, what is encouraging-to the law enforcement en-forcement profession is the fact that the public's' awareness of the fearsome dimensions of crime has matured ma-tured at a time when the country is faced, according to many knowledgeable observers, ob-servers, with some of the' gravest problems in its history. his-tory. "TO HAVE assigned it this top priority convinces me that the public is not only troubled by crime but is trulv alarmed by it. "Perhaps this alarm is a blessing in disguise! If anything good can come from pernicious criminality, it is when the public has had its fill and becomes solidly arrayed against it. "IF CITIZENS express their outrage at crime and report its occurrence promptly to police, cooperate fully in its investigation and prosecution, give unflinching support to criminal justice system programs, demand realistic punishment for serious or repeat offenders, set an example themselves of law-abiding citizenship, and become involved in correct ing the inequities that exist in their communities, then crime will surely be contained. con-tained. "No successful attack on crime can be made without the backing of an informed and aroused citizenry. It is the bedrock upon which a determined de-termined assault on lawlessness lawless-ness must be built. |