The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-31
The Police Investiga alton.

Inc exposure of police corruption does not
stop with the story of Martinott nor with the
cumulative evidence of panel house black
mailing The testimony elected before the
Assembly Investigating Committee yesterday
was even more damaging than any that pre-
coded it. In our news columns the whole
story as it was told to the committee is re-
lated, from which it appears that police cap
tains and their friends, and even the late
President and one of the members of the
Board of Police Commissioners, were in the
habit of feeding their horses at the public ex-
pense. More than this, that very virtuous
public servant, Mr.. Seth G. Hawley, the
clerk to the Board drew his tactical fluid from
o cow fed at the police crib. The excellent
Hawley was not satisfied with the food he OBJ
tanned for his horses nor even with that which
was given to his COW, but he had policemen
detailed to work in his garden and repair his
fences. We do not know by what name Mr..
Hawley would characterize his offence had it
been committed by another person, but the
public will have no two opinions of the inef-
fable mcanness of his conduct. This expo
sure of Hawley, the late President Henry
Smith, Commissioner Barr, Captains Wilson
and Speight and others, is one of the saddest
commentaries ever made public in regard to
the management of the police, and it is in
itself the amplest evidence that corruption is
the rule and not the exception in the depart
ment.
The duty Of the Commissioners in this
crisis is plain one-namely, the dismissal of
every officer against whom charges exist. 1t
is unsafe to allow the police administration of
o city like New York to remain in the hands
of men against whom there are such grave
suspicious, not to say proofs. We observe,
for instance, in the case of Captain Burden,
that the testimony of Martinott is to be broken
down upon statement of the notorious The
Allen. A cause must be desperate indeed
which is compelled to resort to a defence SO
disreputable, and we warn the Commission
ers that they cannot evade their duty by ac-
cepting so absurd story as true. Whatever
may be said of Martinott-and it is not to his
credit that he was tool of Burden SO long
Mr. Theodore Allen is not a man whose testi-
mony is to be accepted on any occasion.
These are not mere trials OF the guilt
or innocence of police oficers-they are an
effort to determine whether men against
whom there are such grave charges as those
against Captain Burden are fit to be longer
trusted with the grave responsibilities of the
important stations they now fill. Whether
Burden could be convicted of Matchmaking in
a court of justice is not the question; and,
whether he could or could nos be, the neces-
sity of his retirement from his position on the
police force is equally certain. The same
thing is true of Mccullough, Williams Wilson
and Speight and of others whose misdeeds are
likely to be revealed before this inquiry is
over. 1t will not do to continue these men in
power with so much reason for believing the
charges alleged against them, and the Com
missioners will fail in their duty unless they
sweep out of the paths of honest men every
suspected official