Washington, DC
July 28, 2008

Conference President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz will address the nation on August 4 at a National Press Club luncheon aired on national radio and C'span at 1:00 pm.

On June 17, in Miami, President Diaz announced his five national Mayors Action Forums to be held in Philadelphia on Crime, New York City on Infrastructure, Los Angeles on Poverty, Chicago on Arts and Environment in Miami.

President Manny Diaz comes to Washington, D.C. to launch his national campaign from the national center of America’s press headquarters, The National Press Club.

He brings before the nation a clarion call to all that Washington is asleep and out of touch and step about what is happening and what is needed to keep our metro economies strong to serve the majority of America’s people now living in American cities.

It is a message with one central theme: National problems deserve national investments.

After his media tour in Washington, he goes directly to Philadelphia to preside over and direct the Mayors ’08 Action Forum on Crime, August 5/6. Mayors will join Mayor Diaz from across America and they will bring their Police Chiefs. Together the mayors and police officials will work together on a new crime fighting agenda to meet the challenge of the increase of crime on our streets and in our neighborhoods.

Mayor Diaz has stated that crime goes down when more police officers are working our streets and neighborhoods. In addition the mayors and police officials will consider strategies to face the increase of robberies and theft.

Police Chiefs and experts are now concluding there is a direct link between the increase of robbery, burglary and theft and the downturn of economic conditions.

AK47s and other weapons are being used against police officers and citizens. Without the restoration of the ban we had on these rapid-fire automatic weapons, some police chiefs are warning that their police officers are out gunned and overpowered. If the bad guys are using AK47s, then the good guys, our cops, should have equal firepower. Until Congress stands up and tells the National Rifle Association, you don’t shoot quail or deer with AK47s, the police departments have no choice but to ask for, at the least, equal and more rapid firepower, to keep our cities safe for our people.

Youth and gang violence continues to rage in many of our city neighborhoods. Illegal automatic weapons in the hands of violent youth provides a threat to homes, schools, and, yes churches. In Philadelphia mayors and police chiefs will bring new innovations and best practices.

The primary goal President Diaz wants from the Forum on Crime is to forge a new agenda for the next Attorney General to become the partner we once had when President Clinton put his heart, head and total energy in a historic partnership with mayors and police chiefs, unequalled in the history of our nation. With the full force of The White House standing behind and standing for our police departments, we reached great strides in reducing crime in our cities, large and small.

At the center of the action against crime is and always has been Delaware Senator Joe Biden. We have invited him to be with us in Philadelphia to give his thoughts and support for new local efforts and federal initiatives and needed legislation.

Senator Barack Obama, the nominee of the Democratic Party, stood before mayors assembled in Miami at our Annual Meeting last month said, “I’ll fully fund the COPS program.” That was indeed good news for our mayors assembled.

An infusion of 100,000 cops on our streets plus criminal justice block grants helped reduce crime. Many police departments today report the number of police officers on our streets have been decreased. The number of police officers we have has gone down since the Clinton White House. Some Democrats and Republicans in Congress have voted against the COPS program just because it was “a Clinton program.” It is most unfortunate to be so petty when people are being robbed, raped, abused and murdered.

Let us hope there will be a change and that we will soon have Washington lending their full support to fully fund the COPS program, restore fully funded criminal justice block grants, ban AK47s and offer more than concern and press releases about what they do for us as they blame each other when our cops and block grant funding is cut. President Diaz will demand that America listens to our police chiefs and their senior officers about what Washington must do as a working hand to help them provide safe cities. As Mayor Wellington Webb of Denver told the German parliament as our President, “If you don’t have a safe city, you don’t have a city.” Today, police chiefs and their departments are doing their best to provide us with safe cities. But it is an enormous challenge. As the economy tanks, people do desperate things and commit unaccepted acts to survive themselves and some steal and plunder to eat and in some cases feed their children.

Watch for our survey in the field today focusing on the economic factors that have thrust new challenges on many police departments in cities across the nation.

One week later from the Philadelphia Forum on Crime, Mayor Diaz continues his march for America with the 08 Mayors Action Forum in New York City, scheduled for August 13 and 14.

All mayors are asked to join President Diaz’s march for America holding the Philadelphia Forum on Crime and the New York Forum on Infrastructure. Notices are being sent, faxed and mailed to you requesting your participation and contribution. Manny Diaz needs your help. Come join and stand with him as he says to Washington and to Senators Obama and McCain: “National problems demand national investments.”

Now, one month after he took the gavel in Miami President Diaz comes to Washington and calls again for Washington, our capital city to wake up. He then marches the next day to Philadelphia to focus on crime and then to New York to focus on infrastructure. This is the beginning of Manny’s march for America. Join us. Support the 10-Point Plan, stand with us and together we will be victorious.