New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-08-29
THg POLICE HERCULES.

The case of Lnehan, who died on Sunday
last, does not stand alone. Instances OF cruei
use of the club by the policeman are becoming
numerous enough to demand serious considera-
ton. Hardly week passes without AIDING
TO the prisoners unnecessarily maltreated, so
that it is not strange that the judges OF the
lower criminal courts have lately expressed
themselves forciby upon the subject When
man is brought before them on the somewhat
indefinite charge of "dsordery conduct" with
his head cut open, with his face generally
pfismatic and with his eyes specially black
ard blue, it is the duty, plain and simple, OF
the presiding magistrate to inquire how that
riegated sufferer came to be so disfigured'
ually the policeman who fetches him up has
= all his own way, tells what story he pleases'
Nth nothing to refute him except the bare
yCrd of the culprit; and how much that goes
for in q police tribunal may be easily I'M
agined. In the Ninth Precinct, last Mon
day. a very much beaten man was before
the Court in a bandaged condition. Upon
being asked what he had to say for himself,
he declared that his employer owed HIM mon
ey and would not pay him. So he took seat
on a truck near his debtors place of business
and waited to be settled with. 1t being warm
he naturally fell asleep. He was awakened by
the policeman, who ordered him to move on.
He refused to do so without his money,
whereupOn he was beaten and then locked up
All the officer could offer III defence OF his
conduct was that the debtor requested him to
drive the man away! 1t was simply outrage
"ous,r the Judge said; and he added: ! have
&" seen so much of this clubbing business since
81 have been sitting here, that | think it
doubtful whether the general run of the
"police should be trusted with clubs" The
Judge was right. 1t is extremely doubtful
Unfortunately this doubt does not solve the
difficulty. Some weapon of defence it is alb
solutely necessary that the policemen should
have The club was adopted as being safer
against abuse than reyolvers-kniyes and other
edged tools being out of the question. Expert
ence has shown, however, that the club Is a
dangerous weapon, especially when employed
about the head, as it usually is. Any private
person who should apply 1t to another with no
more force than is constantly resOrted to by
policemen, would be found guilty of felOnious
assault. and, if serious consequences ensued,
would be sent to the State Prison. Half the
men at least who are arrested are too drunk
to know what they are doing, but not too drunk
to oppose a sort of force to that of the officer.
If he is reasonable, he gets his prisoner to the
station house as well as he can without recourse
to the club it, as often happens, he is unrea-
sonable, he begins to hammer the head of his
prisoner, and to reduce him to a semi-sense-
less condition, until he goes on with hardly
more resistance than is offered by his specific
gravity.
This method of dealing with disorderly per-
sons has been continued for years, and very
little has been said about it. The Judge
thought black eyes and bruised features moth
ing remarkable under the circumstances. The
prisoner was incapable of telling a congruOus
story and the policeman might easily aver that
he did not inflIct the injuries. Indeed, he
might be responsible for a part>Of them and
not for the rest. Now, the attention OF the
magistrates has been called especially to these
outrages inflicted by the instruments OF the
law and we have the dictum of Judge Wan
dell that "the general run of policemen are
" not to be trusted with clubs" But there is
sequitur which does not appear to have
occurred to him. Policemen who cannot be
trusted with clubs are not At to be policemen
at all. 1t is the peculiarly of a good officer
that he knows just when and how vigorously
and upon whom to employ his "locust."
Without this knowledge, and a sufficient COM
mand of his temper to act upon it, he is absO-
lutely unfit for his place. 1t is asking too
much, perhaps to demand the disuse of clubs;
it is demanding little enough to call for the
dismissal from the service of men who bru-
tally abuse their necessary authority.
TRAVELLERS' TALES.