The New York herald., 1875-07-18
Police orimes-The Duty OF the Press
and the Public.

that was not known before peculiar value
attaches to ii on account of its official solem-
nifty. What was previously only a suspi-
cion or belief is now an established truth
The Police Department is proved beyond all
doubt to be honeycombed with corruption,
and more dangerous to the peace and well
being of the community than the criminal
classes against which it was organized to pro-
tect the people. So potent has this influence
for evil become that the official blackmailer
practically detes every effort at punishment
and boldly pursues his policy OF oppression
and fraud without any sense of danger from
detection and exposure. Thieves and burg
lars may be seen in the open day on terms Of
intimacy with policemen and police captains.
The station house and the police court have
become a certain protection against crime.
The officers Of the law are the partners IN
guilt with the keepers of panel houses and
dens of prostitution. The miserable crea-
lures who walk the streets selling their bodies
for bread are taxed by uniformed ruffians,
who grow rich on the wages OF vice.
Only the innocent are in danger from
police supervision. and 80 terrible has
this abuse become that the word railroad
ing in thieves 'parlance, now means the
conviction of innocent persons for the secu-
rty of the real criminals and their official
protectors. We regret the necessity which
compels these avowals, but no right-minded
man who has read the testimony already
brought out by the legislative committee or
who keeps in mind the repeated exposures in
the columns of the HERALD can fail to reach
the conclusion that our police management is
infamous-that the department itself is an in
fanny. II grieves us to say this, because the
fair fame of our city is involved in the decla-
ration, but the duty is one which cannot be
longer dlsregarded. Further concealment or
supineness is death. No community which is
held at the mercy of class OF ignorant and
INSCRIPTIONS men such as compose the ma
jority of the metropolitan police can expect to
continue prosperous and happy and the duty
of destroying both the corrupt officers and their
vicious practices is paramount and immediate.
The partnership between the criminal classes
and the police was slow in growth, but it has
acquired such strength that it is dangerous
for any innocent man to know the guilty
secrets of the one or the other; and unless it
is suppressed now by the complete reorganiza-
ton of the department and the punishment
of the men who have brought such infinite
discredit and disgrace upon the community,
life, liberty and property in New York will be
less secure than among the brigands of Italy
and Spain.
We should fail in our duty in this crisis if
we contented ourselves with denouncing the
bad men under whose authority SO much evil
has been accomplished. The McCulloughs
and Burdens and Williamses are only the
scum which comes to the surface in times of
moral deafness. These men, if they have
committed the crimes charged against them
were guilty only because both public and
private virtue are dormant and imperative.
Was there any high purpose among the people
to prevent or to punish crime not one of them
could face an indignant community with
the brazen efrontery they now exhibit. 1t
is disgraceful that any of them should have
been allowed to perform his official functions
for a single day after the sworn testimony
against them. AIartinots charges against
Captain Burden were so clear and circum-
stantial that only in city lost to all public
decency and virtue would the Police Board
have dared to keep him in Office after the accu-
sations were known. Captain McCulloughs
case is more recent, but no less scandalous
while the conduct of Captain Williams has
been for year or two an open and running
sore. II is absurd to treat these officials as
innocent men, fit to be trusted with the great
pow er they are allow we'd to exercise. Suspen-
sion from duty and an impartial and speedy
trial is the utmost they can ask, and it is dis
graceful to every member Of the Police Board
that more was granted them. We do not
believe they are any worse than the majority
Of the captains on the force, but they have
been accused on sworn testimony OF the high
est crimes of which q police officer can be
guilty in his official capacity, and this calls
for the legal determination OF their guilt and
their punishment if it is legally established
If the people of New York were as impatient
of wrongdoing as they ought to be
such charges even would be impossible
for if they are true no public officer
would have the courage to commit such bare
faced offences in the face Of an indignant pub
lie virtue, and if they are not true no accuser
would have dared to make the accusations
Look at this subject Us we may-from the
side Of the accusers or the accused, from
belief or a disbeliefin in the accusadons-we are
alike compelled to deprecate the fatal supine-
ness which has seized and paralyzed the body
polite and leaves the city at the mercy Of Of
fetal or unofficial vultures
In bringing these charges home to our
people we do not wish to imply that the moral
sense which seems dead to the community is
utterly annihilated or destroyed. We believe
there IS still as much public and private virtue
in the metropolis as there ever was. but famil-
iarity with malversation and corruption has