The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-03-27
Red Tape and the Rose Young Out
rage.

ANeu Iape ana the 1Aoso Aou"S
rage.
The horrid outrage perpetrated on the
dead body of the unfortunate Rose Young
by the police and other officials may well
lead us to doubt if, after all our boosted en-
lightenment, we are not retrograding into
barbarism. The letter of the law which
regulates official action in cases where
body supposed to be dead is
found, appears to conflict with the spirit
of the enactment which is really intended
to be q safeguard instead of a danger. If it
is not so then the commonest promptings
of humanity should have led to the removal
of the poor remains of Rose Young from the
Shiny waters of New York slip to the,
Morgue, which has been specially estab-
lished for the purpose. Limited IN
telligence will stand by the letter of
law and will not recognize its spirit,
and familiarity with death hardens the
heart to an utter indifference to its most ap-
palling phases The two combined are nee
essary to the production of scandalous
outrage such as we record, and which is
without parallel in the long list of police
brutalities. If the law provides that body
must not be touched until the arrival OF the
Coroner, and that the lingering spark of
life which may yet exist must be e1tln-
guished before the eyes of those who might
by timely exertions fan it again into vigor-
Gus flame, then the sooner such barbarous
law is repealed the better and more hui
NH rh cha oil ha fran a6
more for the preservation of life than the Sc
curing of the payment of coroners' fees.
According to the strict letter of the law
as it now stands if police officer finds
body hanging by the neck to a lamppost bar
and apparently dead he must not interfere,
he must not think of rescuing the possibly
living person until he first notifies the Cap
tain of his precinct, who in the course of an
hour or so may notify the Central Office
and request that the Central Office shall
notify the Coroner. Now. the Coroner may
be arranging to attend Tammany
meeting and leaves his Office early, but his
clerk may send telegram to the Commits
sioners of Charities and Correction notify
ing them to remove the body to the Morgue.
But the Commissioners of Charities and Cor
rection, finding that the sex of the body is
not mentioned in the notification of the
Coroner's clerk, and being unwilling to
have their elaborate records defective in any
respect, inquire during the course of the
evening, sis it man or woman that Is
hanging at Seventy-fifth street and Eighth
avenue?" The answer IA man" may be
sent back but in the meantime the Com
missioners telegraph operator leaves for the
night and it is after eight o'clock next
morning before he turns up at his desk. The
dead-cart driver is duly notified during the
next two hours, and after nearly twenty-four
hours delay the corpse is cut down and re-
moved to the Morgue without ever having
been seen by the Coroner.
If such q case occurred we would have no
hesitation in demanding the indictment of
he policeman for homicide if any evidence
could be produced to show that the suicide
died of strangulation. The law, if it is to
be read as brutal policemen, lazy officials
and greedy Coroners interpret it, certainly
needs total change, or its provisions to
preserve the possible evidence of crime that
may surround body should be so modified
as to prevent a possible recurrence of such
an outrage as was perpetrated in the case of
Rose Young.