NEWS CONFERENCE 593

capita and this bothers me. We are doing everything that we can
think of to do about it. I can't say that we should crack down because
I would simply be reiterating what I said when I took office and even
during the campaign. We are doing everything we can think of and
if there are other things we can do we want to do them too.

Q. Would you say that the crime problem has lessened since you
took office?

A. No, J wouldn't. I think it's increased. I don't consider that we
have met the solutions to the problem. I feel discouraged by it. I am
not alone in my discouragement. I think every governor of every state
in this country is having the same problem and we are all discouraged.
This was a subject of our discussions during the governors' conference.
We have to meet the problem, and it is a very multi-faceted complex
problem with its roots in deprivation and the lack of education and
job opportunities. We have to keep working on it.

(Riots)

Q. Governor, the Police Chief of Miami said that in the riot situa-
tion when the looting starts the shooting begins. Do you favor that
policy?

A. I don't understand that statement. Who is doing the shooting?
Q. The police would be doing the shooting.

A. I don't approve of blanket endorsement of shooting under any
circumstances. We have some much more sophisticated methods of
dealing with looters today than we had when simply firing a weapon
was the answer. We have this deterrent gas that has been used most
effectively in riots, and I think it's a matter of an individual and pro-
fessional police judgment as to what lengths force will be resorted to.
This is not a matter that I think can be done by me in the Governor's
office. It has to be — the evaluation has to be made at the scene of
the riot and under the conditions that are present, by a professional
person. I would leave it to the judgment of the people in charge at
that time.

(Constitutional Convention)

Q. Governor, getting back to the Convention for one moment. Do
you feel that the Legislature should steer clear of any constitutional
issues that the Convention is now taking up?

A. We have tried in formulating our legislative program to steer
clear of very definitive solutions in executive reorganization until we
see what the ground rules of the Constitution are. As I look at the