The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-12

| courts open IN the morning Then they are dis
charged generally with o reprimand from the
| Judge. II is a scene to make the pulses OF true
manhood beat with Indignation. The police
| justice knows very well why the poor girls
were brought into court-knows that they have
been MADE to suffer the fortunes or night IN
the station house that some venal policeman
may be able to levy and collect tax upon crime.
yet he countenances the wrong by rebuking the
unfortunate women before sending them away.
These outrages are more frequent than most
| people suspect. They seldom get into the
| newspapers. for they are the mere commonplace
1 OF the police courts. raid on disorderly house
| Is only theme for ribad jest. as the victims
| are put through the tortures which are intended
| TO extort from them tho wages of shame. No
protest Is ever heard against these wrongs Christ
ian men and women have no word for unfortunate
wretches who sell their bodies for bread and the
police treat them worse than the animals who
have no kinshlp to humanity. STILL nothing
better is to be expected so long the police and
the police courts are above the law and our
asyums ana hospitals the nurseries OF lnhu.
mainly.
THE HELpLEssNBss OF POvERrY AND MISFORTUNE.
AS ls often impossible for the innocent to
avoid indignity ana outrage at the hands OF police
officers and police judges, so 1t is often equally
difficult to procure the arrest OF the guilty. Some
months ago runlan committed an aggravated
assault and battery upon poor woman in her
own room, which he had entered against her
WISH Feeling herself unsafe. she went before
Judge Kasmire to ask for the mans arrest but
that astute of1cial declined to grant a warrant
until her respectablity had been vouched for. Re-
spectability Is new element In the scales OF JUS
tlce; but It y not to be wondered at that 1t should
be Insisted upon In city where helpessness is
punished as o crime. II Jacob Stockvls, suffer-
ing from disease and standing mute In
the presence OF Judge Flammer, had been
able to take handsomely engraved card
from his pocket and to have said, 81
81 am merchant and a gentleman it is prob
able that both the police and the court would
have begged his pardon for surprising he was in
toxicaled. But as he could not speak ana was
| apparently without friends he was sent 10 the
| Island for six months, where he was murdered by
cruelty and neglect. On the other hand. had he
appeared before the court. poor and wretched
| he seemed, to demand the arrest OF the rufians
VINO assaulted him, 1t is likely his story would
have been discredited, and he would have been
fortunate to have escaped the penalties OF vag-
rancy. Poverty and misfortune have no chance
against Official ignorance. arrogance and reckless.
ness. Under our present system 1t Is too often
the guilty who 60 Tree, and the innocent who are
punished, and this state of things Will continue so
long as the police ana the police are
IN THE STATION HOUSE AND AT COURT.
A night In a station house and morning IN one
of the police courts Is q great eye.opener. Many
a gentleman OF eminent Responsibility testify
AS mas already been shown, falling Drew los
policeman is easy enough. The way TO the station
mousse Is path fun Of dangers; Journey as dan:
the days OF lnolan warfare. The impending club
is too apt to all on an unreslstlng head Once at
the station house the prisoners SORROWS may be
SAID to have only begun. The ordeal OF the Ser
geant's examination is generally brutal display
0farrogance inDecillty, cruelty and Injustice That
over, comes the cell-un furnished damp miserable
and wretcned generally alive with vermin and
peopled by score or ribald wretches whom the
police net for the precinct has gathered for the
night. Que out OF twenty OF the prisoners should
have been arrested, the other cases are mere inva
SONS OF private rights and personal liberty and
would be punished II the laws were in
aps to rns Be na n. Is
unjust ones. In the morning the procession IS
taken up or the ponce court place s sGarce
Ietd breath. There the officers story ls told in
the lewest words, and that and the prisoners
ara the facts are disregarded, and the Judge de-
c:des according to impulse. New York police
ne hears cases, and it frequently happens that the
numner OF MIS- Ofences Is measured oy the number
chance to he heard IN his own defence, and II ne
is heard at all the oticer's story is believed IN
preference TO his, though In nine cases out OF ten
police testimony Is pure fabrication. The case
OF Stockvls shows that man may be compelled to
/ u
thought OF justice being manifested toward nln,,
and IN the end die Ia prison from neglect and
test tie trutninlness OF this picture he mas only to
90 to the trouble OF being arrested, which he Will
THE sTocKvrs CASE.
The Stockvs case is so remarkable In every
aspect, and bears such overwhelming testimony to
recklessness ana nhumanlty III the police the
police courts and the correctional Institutions
that 1t will bear rehearslng. Every phase OF the
case Is a condemnation stronger than words.
unknown man, apparently intoxicated, out IN
reality speechless from disease, and suffering in
mind as well In body, Is arrested by Otiicer ta-
Ion and taken TO the station house. SO lar 1t Is
well, but the Oi1cer's assumption OF intoxlcation
Ia adopted by his superiors, and the man Is placed
III cell without medical examination and brought
before Judge Hammers court IN the morning, stil
Judge makes examination OF the prisoner,
though the case Is an unusual one, evidently de-
mandIng the strlctest scrutiny and the most care
fui inquiry, out commits man whose name he
does not know and mas not tired 10 know,
charged with no offence against the law and
guilty OF none, to Backweii's Island Tor six
months. No medical examination was made at
the police court. as there mad been none at the
station mouse, and, strangest OF all, none IS made
Oh the Island. The unfortunate man IS kept.in
a cell, with two lunatics, and when discovered by
These occurrences, following each other rapidly,
and at each step more and more criminal.
/ believed possible had wllkie Collins invented
them for the plot or one OF his novels 1t is story
romances written to illustrate the abuses Of
| justice. Hard cash" pOrtrays q less startling
revelation. Put fOuiSeiI Ia HIS race" OepCtS
a better state OF society. Here Ii rottenness and
criminal negligence at the very foundation OF our
Tree institutions. Not only Is sentence wrong
! fully passed upon an unknown man. put every
oniclal into whose hands the prisoner fell, from
! the moment OF his arrest until ne was found on
Blackwell's Island, Jailed to perform his duty in
violation OF his oath. The more we ponder over
the case the more stupendous does the wrong be.
come, Tor 1t seems TO teach that there safety
nowhere. and that the Inferior courts are moro
terrible than the rings which dictate the
officials who compose them.
A BRIGHT CONTRAST.
1t IS some relief, however, TO know that there Is
at least bright contrast TO the St0Ckvls case.
Some mon Tbs ago q prisoner was taken before
Judge smith, OF the TomDs Police Court, charged
| with intOxlcati0n. Although the man was unable
to stand up In the court room there had been no
medical examination. According to the ponce II
was only common case OF drunk" Impressed
with the popularity OF the mans condition the
Judge left the bench and examined the prisoner.
/ when he found that the prisoner had been s.
terribly be aten that his Drain was a1ec and his