FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1995                       (202) 616-2765
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


             ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO CALLS ON CONGRESS
             TO SAVE THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno today urged
Congress not to abolish an important and effective Justice
Department agency that safeguards communities and saves lives.
     Established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Community
Relations Service calms communities through mediation and
conciliation when tensions flare over issues of race, color or
national origin.
     "For thirty years, Attorneys General of both parties have
relied on CRS for the invaluable service it provides," said Reno. 
     The Senate is expected to vote as early as today on a 
Justice Department appropriations bill which would abolish CRS.
     Reno said CRS has established a tradition of trustworthiness
that has enabled it to forge relationships with law enforcement,
local officials and civic leaders nationwide.  Over the years,
CRS:
    managed to quell a crowd of thousands that had gathered in
     Memphis to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak the night he
     was assassinated.  Though riots erupted elsewhere, the crowd
     went home peacefully;

    has met with police officers, community leaders and 
      demon-strators before every Ku Klux Klan rally it was aware of; 

    bravely disarmed the Native Americans at Wounded Knee in
     1973, standing between them and the armed camps of federal
     agents stationed nearby;

    worked closely with communities in Boston in the late 1970's
     to reduce racial violence while the courts tried to
     desegregate the schools;

    averted violence, a threatened economic boycott and
     prolonged legal action in Union Point, Georgia, after the
     Mayor, in February, banned 21 black youths from entering
     certain businesses; 

    averted a strike by black college coaches before the NCAA
     basketball tournament in 1994; and,

    dispatched conciliators to Wedowee, Alabama, where a high
     school had been burned down after a principal threatened to
     cancel the prom if interracial couples attended.

     Reno also noted that in just one week this July, CRS defused
explosive racial controversies that resulted after incidents
involving local law enforcement in Miami, Panama City,
Indianapolis and Los Angeles.
     The approximately 100 CRS employees carry no guns or badges
and cannot file lawsuits.  Parties to a dispute are free to
decline its services.  "It has only the power of persuasion,"
added Reno.  
     CRS also provides humanitarian aid and reunites families of
immigrants with their families in the United States.  Over the
last eight years, CRS has provided shelter care and orderly
adjudication of immigration status for more than 7,500
unaccompanied alien minors that would otherwise have been on the
street or in detention centers ringed with barbed wire.
     CRS has an operating budget of about $10 million for
conflict resolution and $10 million for resettlement purposes. 
     "CRS has invested three decades into building relationships
on the ground, and for Congress to throw it on the scrap heap now
wouldn't even be penny-wise," added Reno.  "I urge Congress to do
the right thing, and save CRS."
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