ASHCROFT TOUTS LOWER CRIME RATE

Attorney General Speaks in Columbia, Credits Patriot Act, Police for Success

Attorney General John Ashcroft brought his tough-on-criminals message
to Columbia Wednesday, crediting record-low crime rates to the Bush
administration and calling for even more tools to fight terrorism.

"America is more secure today than it was two years ago," Ashcroft
told a friendly audience of federal, state and local police and
prosecutors. "America is freer today than any time in history.

"Our strategy is succeeding," he said. "We must keep the pressure
up."

Cooperation among police agencies and more help from a warier public
during the last two years have reduced crime to a 30-year low, he said.

Gun crime in the U.S. is down nearly one-third, Ashcroft said, adding
that last year only 7 percent of all crime involved a firearm.
Property crime, he said, is down 15 percent.

"The violent crime victimization rate has fallen for all ethnic and
racial groups ... all income levels: prince, pauper; rich, poor ... in
every part of America."

After his 25-minute speech at the Embassy Suites hotel, Ashcroft said
his numbers are "new data" he got two weeks ago.

His South Carolina stop was one of three in the Southeast Wednesday
and nearly the 20th in a campaign to push for an end to what Ashcroft
calls "revolving-door justice."

His speech was sprinkled with anecdotes about a police officer shot in
Omaha, Neb., last week by a career criminal; by advocacy for the right
to bear arms; and by swats at critics who "resist even the most simple
truths" about crime and punishment.

USC Law School professor Richard Seamon is among those critics. "It's
misleading to equate the Justice Department's efforts against
terrorism with this broader (crime) trend," said the former Justice
Department attorney.

The national crime rate has been dropping steadily since President
Clinton's first term, said Seamon, who did not attend Ashcroft's speech.

Ashcroft said the USA Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress
in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorism attacks, has kept Americans
safe.

He argues the law extends to the war on terror the government's
long-held powers to break up organized crime and drug operations.

Ashcroft now wants higher bail for accused terrorists, the death
penalty for convicted terrorists and broader subpoena powers.

In a brief interview with The State, Ashcroft dismissed as
"mythology" the view that antiterrorism laws threaten civil liberties
and weaken judges' oversight of police and prosecutors.

Seamon and other civil libertarians disagree.

What the Justice Department calls modest changes in the law are "all
like loosening the bolts," Seamon said. "I'm afraid that civil
liberties are going to collapse."

But many police officers who heard Ashcroft Wednesday agreed with his
speech.

"We did not seek this struggle, but we embrace this cause," Ashcroft
said. "What is asked of us, we accept. What we accept we will achieve."

It was "good for a law enforcement audience," said Hubert Harrell,
the No. 2 officer in the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

"That makes us feel that we're not out there doing all this stuff in
vain, that somebody understands."