And second, crime costs in the taxes that go to maintain police forces, courts, jails, other means of enforcement. It is a breach of faith with those who are paying the cost of crime, human as well as financial, to be lenient with the criminal. There are those who say that law and order are just code words for repression and bigotry. That is dangerous nonsense. Law and order are code words for goodness and decency in America.
Crime is color blind.
Let those who doubt this talk to the poor, the minorities, the inner-city dwellers, who are the most frequent victims of crime. There is nothing to be ashamed of, abut Americans wanting to live in a law-abiding country. I intend to do everything in my power to see that the American people get all the law and order they are paying for. Our progress in this effort has been encouraging. The latest FBI figures show that for the first 9 months of 1972, the growth rate of serious crime in America was reduced to 1 percent.