New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-20
THE DUTY or THE POLICE.

There must be no trifiing in this matter Of
enforcing the laws against the concert saloon
keepers and gamblers who infest Broadway,
and the liquor dealers who persistently violate
tho Sunday and after midnight regulations of
the Excise Board. 1t will no longer do to
pooh pooh the present cry for reform in these
particulars, as q repetition of the old demand
which the police authorities have been wont
to laugh at and ignore as the hypocritical
cant of moral but unreasonable people who
know nothing of what they are talking about.
The appeal is not really made in the higher
interests of morality. 1t is rather demand
for protection from insult and security for
the person in our most public thorOughfares.
1t is a cry for decency--public decency. The
honest folk who have discovered that they
are in a majority, and that in their active
presence the Rougbs are no longer powerful,
mean to have the Police Force run, hereafter,
in the interests of Reform.
And the sooner the police and all concerned
recognize this the better for them personally
and politically. A city which has reformed
corrupt Judiciary and a swindling Municipal
Ring out of existence is not likely to hesitate
to visit its vengeance on delinquent Commits
sioners and FSuperintendents and Captains
of Police, or to sweep from place the petty
Police Justices who thwart justice with their
petty intrigues We tell all grades of these
officials that their regulations and heads de-
pend upon their actions now. The late election
was not only demand for honest but efficient
administration. 1t was cry not only for
economy, but vigilance. 1t not only denounced
corruption, but condemned negligence in Office
Officials are hereafter to recognize some of the
obligations and responsibilities of Office, and
not content themselves with pOcketing its
Condiments and enjoying its hOnors. 1t means,
in short, thorough reformation and such re-
formation as can be as readily and effectively
had by the strict enforcement of the laws we
already possess as by the adoption of new
ones We are not to wait fort relief upon the
Legislature. We want it now and it might
as well be understood at once that woe awaits
the Police Superintendent, Captain, or Justice
who stands in the way of Reform or hesitates
to do.his duty.
1t must be clear to all concerned that the
raid of last Saturday night is looked upon as
a farce with which the police proposed to
tickle the fancy of an inpatient people. We
want no more such in which Captains pub
licly advertise that they will not hold the
customers" who are captured. These are
guilty Of disorderly conduct equally with those
who entertain them in these disreputable'
houses, and we trust the next and every batch
of "custOmers thuss caught will be sent TOD
the station-houses. before the Police Justice,
and finally to the Island for the longest term.
This is the way to rout these infamous estab-
lishments; and we yet hope 60 see them broken,
or the delinquent officials who neglect their
duty in the matter. The next time the Super
intendent orders a raid, let it BIO Wholesale, and
let him direct his Captains to march every ras
cal caught to prison. Public opinion viii sus-
tain him in this, and favorable public opinion
is what nc most needs just now.