New-York tribune., 1873-06-19
THE OPPORTUNITY or TIE POLICE.


It is to be hoped that the activity displayed
by our police during the first days which toi-
lowed the promulgatiOn of the Habitual Criin-
inals Act, is not to die away as suddenly as
it sprang up. The general approval when
was gained by the arrests OF the dozen pick
pockets who were so promptly dealt With'
ought to convince the guardians OF the peace
that this was the way TO honor. 1t was 10
be expected that the thieves should employ all
the resources Of Chicane TO defeat the object
of the law, and it is TO be regretted that the
phraseolOgy Of the statute makes the punish
ment of notorious evil-dOers almost I'M
possible IN cases where they have never
been previously convicted. But there
is sufficient virtue in the law, if en-
ergetically enforced, to make this city
very uncomfortable residence for proies-
sional thieves, and the public ask nothing
more earnestly than such consummatiOn.
1t is natural that there should be good
deal of outcry against these summary pro-
ceedings as interfering with the rights of the
citizen. But no principle of constitutional
liberty is violated in this class of measures.
No argument can be brought against them
which could not be advanced with equal force
in relation to proceedings against yagrancy.
There was a case some years ago where a
thief boldly defended himself against charge
of vagrancy by alleging his real business. lie
said he was no vagrant-he was a thief by
profession; it was his business to steal and
the business of the law to catch him; they
had no right to take him upon suspicion and
say he had no visible means of support
But this is style Of plea which
the courts will be as little In
cined to admit as the public to
sympathize with. Thieves, known to be such,
have no right to claim the safeguards which
protect the liberty of ordinary citizens. In
all the cases enumerated in the statute, 1T Is
no violent inference to conclude that their
intent and purpose is unlawful. 1t Is folly
for the policeman to wait until he sees the
hand of the thief whom he knows in the
pocket Of the bystander. He might wait all
his life and never catch q glimpse of this
sxllful maneuver. cat would be Of very
little use in the household which should refuse
to seize a rat unless it saw the rodent putting
its visible teeth into the cheese.
Our dishonest classes have enjoyed too long
the comparative impunity which has come to
them through the ineficiency of the law ans'
the apathy and cowardice Of those whose duty
it was to denounce them. Every one has
noticed the apparently friendly relations be-
tween thieves and detectives. They have been
too much in the habit Of regarding each other
as honorable adversaries in a difficult and eX-
citing game, to be treated with mutual
respect until some misstep should place one
in the power of the other. On our great
thoroughfares of travel the case was at its
worst. Every one who has had occasion to
use the Third-ave. ears frequently must have
seen the operations of pickpOckets go
on, almost invariably without interference
from the conductor. Only short while ago
n conductor on that line, passing Chatham
square, said to n passenger with whom he was
talking, " Here's where the pickpOckets gen
orally get on" "And do you do nothing to
"prevent it Z" "NOt if they pay their fare"
"Nor to warn the passengers n "No," said
the conductor with some asperity; Pm not
going to be laid out some night on my way
home" Although there are some honorable
exceptions, the conductors in general regard
it as none of their business to interfere with
the operations of thieves, and prefer
TO treat with contempt the complaints of pas
sengers rather than incur the hostility of the
pickpockets. But armed with this new law,
the police could do a great deal to make the
streets and cars safer than they are, in COM
paratively short time. They cannot make
men honest. They cannot entirely abol-
ish theft in BrOad-st. or the BOwery But
by steadily and persistently collaring all known
thieves, wherever the law authorizes them to
do So and continuing this, not for week or
month, but all the year round, they would
justify themselves before their fellOw-citizens
by works meet for promotion, and cover their
names with something very like glory.