CRIME CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH

None of the problems facing us as a nation is more threatening to the basic core of society than our ever increasing crime rate, which not only destroys neighborhoods and even cities but makes a mockery of the constitutional promise of citizens' right to protection. As concerned as we become when unemployment increases, floods threaten our homes, inflation diminishes our earnings and savings, none is more basic to everyday lives than protection from those who would rob, and even kill, for whatever cash is in our billfold or purse.

How far we have traveled down the road of pervasive crime can be seen from this single statistic: there are more murders, armed robberies, sexual assaults and auto thefts in our home state of Missouri than in the nation of Japan. Since the total number of criminal acts is greater in a state of 5.1 million than in a nation of 124 million, it is not difficult to understand why Missouri's municipal and county police departments, along with only 890 state troopers, are unable to stem a tide that increases with each passing week.

The one difference between Missouri and Japan is that in the latter, society supports the strongest measures possible to deter and control criminal action, while in every state in America our elected officials are reluctant to take the drastic measures required for fear of losing voter support. Pity the governor who would call for conviction rates of 92 percent, which is the level in Japan, or who would recommend statutes mandating long sentences without parole for crimes that are viewed as minor in today's society or, as unthinkable as it might be, order state corrections officials to treat criminals as if they were a menace to the population. Every rights group in the country would be on a governor like a junk yard dog if he took these steps to reduce crime rates in his state.

Imagine, if you can, the prime minister of Japan taking part in a photo opportunity that included uniformed police, hailing a new statute enacted by his parliament adding 47 new capital crimes to the nation's criminal code. The fact that no criminal had been executed for any crime in 30 years would make a mockery of the ceremony and target the prime minister for ridicule. It may come as a surprise to readers, but this is exactly what occurred in the United States the other day. President Clinton, in a photo op attended by a score of police officers, hailed a new congressional bill that adds 47 capital crimes, including the killing of a federal chicken inspector. Yet the U.S. government has not executed a single felon convicted of a capital crime since 196~. None has been executed, and should government officials decide to carry out such an execution, there are no facilities in any federal prison to do so.

One does not have to go very far to recognize the cause of Missouri's increasing crime rate and the increased exposure to crime by every citizen of the state. Like every other state, we are flooded and engulfed by illegal drugs which corrupt those who use them and those who provide them. More than 75 percent of all offenders entering the state's penal system are drug abusers, so any money spent on trying to determine what has happened to public safety is money wasted. The enemy has long been identified. It may also surprise many readers to know that the General Assembly long ago approved a plan for a drug offenders' "boot camp," which has proved so effective in removing addicts and sellers from public streets. Unfortunately, these camps have never been funded, and so both abusers and sellers wind up in our county jails and state prisons without an alternative incarceration facility. The boot camp concept is a sound one, and properly funded it could go a long way in alleviating the state's staggering crime rate.

If Missouri is unwilling to fund boot camps, imagine the response to a college scholarship program that would provide education in exchange for so many years of service as police officers. Such a concept has been discussed, debated, promised and proposed -- but never actually funded -- for the past couple of decades. There isn't such a program in existence to this day. The federal crime bill mentioned above "endorsed" the concept but provided no enabling legislation or funding.

Dwight Eisenhower mobilized the country to build an interstate highway system; Jack Kennedy mobilized America to launch a journey to the moon; LSJ mobilized the government to fight poverty. We haven't had many crusades since, unless you count Reagan's promise to "liberate" us from any further mobilization or Clinton's plan to mobilize gays in the military.

It's pretty obvious we're not really interested in paying the price to reduce crime. The cost of this indifference is being paid in innocent human life at this very moment.