Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-02-20
What is an Officers Duty?

EDITOR HERALD: An accusati OF
was brought against one of the po'
lice officers recently, which, after
full investigation before the Police
Commissioners, evidently shows a
desire on the part of certain mem.
bers of the community to obstruct
the machinery of the law. A short
time since the chief Of Police was
assaulted in one of the daily papers
by some meddlesome, self.sufficien
individual for using the necessary
force land no more) for the incar.
ceration of raving maniac, who
was endangering the lives of citi-
zens and children on the streets. If
this same complainant had met
with the loss of child by the crazy
fight of the maniac in question, lie
never would have had such o sus-
ceptible, sensitive heart for the
abuse which, he says, was used
upon the prisoner. In the case of
McFaddan, day before yesterday,
according to the evidence produced
before the Commissioners, there
were four or five boisterous charac-
ters concerned in riotous conduct,
for which one was arrested and
that officer was the only Of
ficer present to attend to it. Upon
making the arrest of one, another
of the gang took hold of the officer
and endeavored to Interfere with
the arrest. What was he to do
under the circumstances? While
some of the citizens from a neigh
boring building were shouting at
the top Of their voices to "hit that
damned policemen one, just for
luck,n and these were the very
men who signed the accusation
against him. If he had allowed the
the second one the privilege of re-
leasing the one in custody there
would have been no end to the de-
nunciation which would have been
hurled against him. But, on the
contrary, he secured his man, using
no more force than was actually
necessary in the case, and 10 and
behold, here comes an accusation
against the officer for abuse to
prisoner.
There is law which makes it
the duty of u citizen to help an Of
ficer in the discharge of his duty
when called upon by such officer.
1t also makes it II misdemeanor for
citizen to interfere or resist an of
flcer in the discharge of his duty,
either 10y force or otherwise, mean
ing, of course, by words. Now,
really, according to law, these very
complaining witnesses are guilty
of misdemeauor in resisting an Of
ficer by words tending to incite re-
sistance against him. What is to
be the elimination of all these
complaints? Our officers will fear
to make an arrest If there is any re-
sistance made, fearing that there
will be some. intermeddling indi-
vidual about, ready to make COM
plant against him for abuse, so
that he (the ot1icer) may be ousted
from the force and the complainant
or some of his friends step into his
place. 1t certainly is the duty of all
good citizens to assist and uphold
an officer who faithfully performs
his duty without fear or favor and
not to be eternally finding fault
with every little trouble which the
officer may be engaged in. If you
want good officers and those who
will faithfully perform their duties,
rffeHulp 22H4s It. pp1iQtsct :. and encourage
do not uphold any inhunanity
towards a prisoner, only such force as
is necessary to insure his safe con-
veyance to prison.
CITIZEN.
Los Angeles, Feb. 10Th.