The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-07
sssAI.S. BRUTALITY Or REASON
REIGN

'skE ALL VHk
REIGN.
Our contemporary very gravely says the
examination of the negro William Weeks,
arrested for intoxication, developed the
state of facts it supposed would be brought
out. II certainly developed a different
state of facts from what the HerdH has
given to the public. 1t presented the fact
that the officer arrested Weeks whom he
supposed to he intoxicated, walking along
the public street as peaceable as any other
citizen, in company with his wife, who
was getting her unfortunate husband home
that she Knight care for him in such
manner that he would not have occasion to
make disturbance. The first disturbance
of the public peace, according TO the testi-
spoke to him-and then he began to be
"ructious' as he termed it, the poor
woman who was cndcavoring to the best
of her ability to preserve the public peace
gets down on her knees in the street and
begs that her husband may not be taken to
Jail, and guarantees his quiet arrival home,
and that there in his own family shall be
| gotten ont Of the situation he is in. 1t
presented case 10 say the least of a favor
able construction, that the peace and the
dignity Of the state would not be harmed if
he was allowed to 90 TO his home rather
than the common Jail. Which vas the
best refOimatory institution for this man,
| the county Jail or his home? Any intelli-
gent citizen or officer of the law can answer
the question. He was taken to his home
and helc placed in security.
No one has denied his intoXica;ion GER
toXicaion is not an oifensc under our
statutes 1t is not upon his arrest, if ar
rest it shall prove to be, that any comment
has been made 1t rs the brutality mani
Tested on the part of the officers upon
which comment has been Justly made.
The public are ready and willing to
abide the result of fair and impartial trial
where the testimony on both sides of this
case can be heard 1t is the breaking into n
mans house, which is his castle, the brutal
handling Of the prisoner, the assauting OF
his wife, the dragging of the prisoner down
the stairs and the method in which he and
his suffering wife were carted off to Jail
that eXasperates the public. Let this mat
ter be fairly understood The public can
not see the necessity of perpetrating such
an outrage in The presence of the circum-
stances OF the case. There are men who
haze been public officers in the past, and
can be procured now, who will effectually
carry out every provision of our prohibitory
law to the minnest detail without such
transactions as occurred in this instance.
Let us have men who can use reason and
common humanity in the arrest OF a pris
Oncr
The public are told that ii is unbecoming
in the press to comment upon the guilt or
innocence Of the prisoner The public
pres has not commented upon the guilt OF
the prisoner. No one desires to prejudice
the court or take the case from its hands.
1t is the duty of the press to comment upon
acts of brutality wherever they find them.
1t is the safeguard of the public that even
prisoner shall be protected in his rights.
Months are to elapse before the case can
be decided. and we know not how many
more instances of this kind may take place
before that time shall arrive unless a pro-
test is entered from some source AGAINST
this assumed license in the rough treatment
of prisoners under the guise of law. The
press can protest against such transactions
without interfering with courts of Justice
No effort has been made to prejudice or
interfere with the due course of law. 1t il
freedom that is asked for prisoner from
insult and outrage The time has como in
Rutland when this question should be agi-
tated whether brutality shall reign on the
part Of police officers and sheriffs, or
whether reason and common sense shall
guide their acts?