Florida Governor Assails American Judicial System

Claude R. Kirk Jr., governor of Florida, told an audience of 300 at the Law School last night that the American judicial system would "be shaped by the establishment working within the establishment."

"Prosecution is the essence of establishment, and the essence of establishment is law and order," he said.

Kirk described how he had set up a privately financed state police force to combat the intrusions of organized crime. "It was worth every penny of it," he said.

He explained that this task force, composed mostly of former FBI men, had succeeded in bringing about 50 grand-jury indictments of Cosa Nostra members and corrupt public officials during the past four years of his term. But he added that "the irrelevancies and inadequacies of the criminal justice system" made it difficult to bring these indictments to fruition.

Referring to restrictions on the admissibility of wince-tap evidence, Kirk said, "I would like to have all the powers of electronics at my disposal. I think it's time we started fighting crime with something other than a quill pen."

Kirk said that, grave as the problem of organized crime is, it is "peanuts" compared to the prevalence of unorganized crime. He stressed that all crime has its roots in social ills and inequities, which he proposed to deal with "if I can only get the legislature off its high bound bottom and pass some laws."

Kirk's appearance was sponsored by the Harvard Law School Forum.