Johnson Calls For War On Crime

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31053, 7 May 1966, Page 15

Johnson Calls For War On Crime

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, May 6. President Johnson has ordered a redoubled Federal effort “to uproot the menace of organised crime from our society,” says the Associated Press. He described the power of organised crime in America today as “nothing less than a guerrilla war against our society.” Flanked by the AttorneyGeneral (Mr N. Katzenbach), the F. 8.1. director (Mr J. Edgar Hoover) and other Federal officials involved in the war against the criminal empire, President Johnson yesterday gave the AttorneyGeneral the responsibility of directing the battle. President Johnson was speaking to newsmen at the White House after an hourlong meeting with the Government officials.

He ordered each investigation unit in the Government to review carefully its crime programmes, reporting in detail to the AttorneyGeneral and suggesting new areas of investigation. The President called the organised crime menace a guerrilla war “that takes scores of lives each year in gangland violence, and terrorises thousands of citizens.” It is a war, President Johnson said, “in which billions of dollars are drained off by illegal gambling, narcotics, prostitution, loan-sharking, arson and other forms of racketeering.” But most damaging of all, he said, “are the efforts by racketeers to seek protection against honest law enforcement by corrupting our public officials. “Such evil strikes at the heart of our democracy. It corrupts individual officials, it breeds a general contempt and it saps public respect for law and for law enforcement” he said.