The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-13
The London Police.

growing up about us a population brutal,
ferocious, disdaining honest work, and habitu-
ated both to the facility and the impunity of
criminal violence. Each instance of impunity
whets its lawless passions and multiplies its
adherents. Nr. Walpole and Hyde Park have
revealed to the strong rufians their real
strength, and they are not slow to use it. How
is it to be put down, or at least crippled We
keep in London police force of some eight
thousand men. But this force, as it is at pre-
sent managed and distributed, is manifestly
incapable of coping with the rufiianism which
crops up periodically at intervals in popula-
tiOn of three millions. There are broad, open
streets where violence may be committed at
midday. There are small and narrow out-of-
the-way streets where burglary or murder may
easily be committed toward dusk at any time
between September and March. There are
streets which, on Sunday nights, no decent
person can traverse without being dinned by
the blasphemy and obscenity of boys and girls
whose conversation illustrates the advantages
of mixed education of the sexes. Is this to
60 on? 1t is easy to say that eight thousand
men are too few for the duties imposed on
them. This may be true. We only say
that it has not yet been proved. And we shall
not admit that it has been proved until
change of system in the administration has
been tried. The present periodical routine of
beats is eminently less favorable to the public
than to the thief and the garroter. 1t only
acts as a clock to time the movements of the
felon. Rapid and unexpected reconnoissances
Of bodies of policemen might be improvised in
certain districts with advantage; the visits of
superior officers to the patrols might be en-
forced with equal advantage. The conditions
of stature might also be changed. A tall man
isnot necessarily good policeman or good
soldier. The most sinewy and active of men
are more frequently under than over five feet
six inches.
We read as quite matter of course, that
on one day lady is Knocked down and rohbed
in wide and frequented street leading out of
the Strand; that on another u man is tripped
up in the Westminster road, and on regaining
his feet is knocked down and severely injured
by one of his assailant's confederates; that on
another ferocious attack is made on a help
less foreman in Farringdon street. In all these
cases the assailants were brought to trial. But
these represent only a fractional part of the
whole number of assaults committed. 1t often
happens that the ruthan escapes unseen, or at
any rate unpursued; and not unfrequently,
that the victim is too much terrified to give his
evidence in police court.
1t might not be unfair therefore, to say that
for every case Of violent assault brought under
the notice of the magistrates, there must be
at least three others which remain unnotieed
altogether. This calculation gives us about
twenty-eight assaults of ferOcious kind as
the weekly average of the London streets
Now, considering that this is supposed to be a
law-loving and law governed country, it does
strike us that 1856 bad assaults in the year
or, let us say, after making deductions for the
summer months, 1000-are considerably in
excess of just and reasonable average for our
metropolis. For, be ii remembered, We are
speaking not OF the riots and fights in narrow
lanes and crowded courts, where society is in
a normal state of war, but of the open public
Streets in which decent people walk for the
prosecution OF their daily business. In these,
life and limb are not secure even between the
hours of six in the morning and seven in the
! evening. Every indication of wealth or Of
weakness may bring on the solitary pedestrian
! the strong arm of the savage trough" or the
tight grip Of the experienced garroter. That
| the assault is made in broad and open Streets
! through which there is a continuous strea IN
of traffic, makes little difference. The trafli)
| has its flow and ebb, and the accomplished
felon times his attacks with strategical preo-
sion.
And there is this notable feature about
! deeds of violence nowadays. They can be
perpetrated with impunity in the presence,
! not perhaps of Numerous moving popula-
tion, but certainly within view of a number
quite strong enough, If it only were disposed,
to prevent them. If all the able ebodied and
not illdisposed men who were passing during
the preparation OF any outrage in our great
thOrOughlares nau only gAthereu tOgetner, Iue
violence would not have been cOnsummated,
and the offender would have been taken. But
the man who falls among thieves IN the streets
of London realizes to great extent the expe-
rience of his prototype in the parable. The
decent, respectable, and we'll to-do pass over to
the other side Neither pity nor chivalry brings
the bulk of them to the rescue of the PROSTATE
man or insulted woman. They discreetly steal
out of the way of the robber and the rufiian.
Their motives are as various as their conduct
is uniform. Some are afraid of being marked as
victims by the rufian's confederates. Others,
again, are afraid of black eye or a broken