The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-08-18
A BULLY In BRASS BUTTONS.
A Police Officer Attacks Citizen
How Hull Discharges His OFF,
cial Dutjcs--An Outrage.

cial Dutics--An Outrage.
One of the most outrageous affairs that
has disgraced the present administration
of the city government, occurred at the
Rock Island house few minutes after Z
o'clock last evening. The deputy city
marshal, sworn as he is 10 preserve the
peace of the city, went to the hotel men-
toned for the express purpose of Great
ing q disturbance, and he deliberately
carried out his intention by insulting at
tacks upon a law abiding citizen, fol-
lowed by an unprovokei blow on the
part of the officer, which, however, was
quickly resented by the citizen in such
convenient to gather himself UP out of
the gutter and fall into the arms OF two
of his subordinate officers. and while
thus under arrest he repeated his attacks
upon the citizen, striking him again, and
this time with seemingly less provocation
than before, as the latter had simply
landed him in the gutter in resentment to
the first attack of the officer
The cause of the trouble, as the deputy
alleges it to be, was an article appearing
in last evenings ARGUS, which was in eff
feet, us follows:
Deputy Marshal Hull has received in-
struclons from Mayor Mnrdock that his
time will be up Sept. /.
There was something In the above
that was not satisfactory to the deputy,
and it was Mr.. J. " Potter. editor Of the
Argus, whom he accosied at the Rock Is
land house last evening. Hull was waiting
for Mr.. Potter when the latter came down
stairs from supper aud approaching him
asked the source of the item regarding his
discharge and began the use OF threaten
ing language. 1t is not customary for any
items, aud the request on the part of the
officer was denied. the editor admonish-
ing him to go about his business that he
wanted nothing to do with him, and
walked out of the hotel and had reached
the railing in front of Simon & Mosen-
folders store when Hull came up and re-
peated his insulting epithets at the same
time assaultiug the editor, who
struck back, and the deputy found
himself in the gutter. He
was Immediately placed under arrest by
Officers Bresnahan and BoIand, who had
evidently come up with him, and as he
was starting off he again struck the ed
itor. He was taken down the street Il
few rods and liberated, and ne came back
Immediately to the scene of the disturb
ance and staggered around there in an
impudent manner for few minutes for
the apparent purpose OF renewing the
encounter, but By this time number of
the editors friends had congregated. and
the officer seeing the contempt which
met him on nil sides, finally departed
This morning Hull was arrested By Con
stable Lieberknecht for assault and
battery and taken before Justice Halves. |
where ne entered plea of guilty and was
fined 50 and costs.
The item upon which Hull pretended to
base his otfense was founded upon infor-
nation which came directly from him
The informant of the ARGUS was d. NJ,
Sturgeon, Esq, who came direct from
Magistrate Beunett's Office, where Hull
had told him that he had received tele>
phone message from Mayor Murdoch that
his time would be up September / The
ARGUS had no reason to question the
propriety of publishing the item, as it
was told AS a matter of news, and Hull.
after himself furnishing the original in
formation, was Indignant because the
ARGUS published it. He failed to deny
the truth of the statement in his CONVEX
sation with the editor previous to the en-
counter, and this morning Mr. Sturgeon
made statement before Justice Halves
that Hull had told that he had received
notice of his release after September l.
Hull now claims that he did not tell Mr.
Sturgeon that he was to be discharged,
but Sturgeon is willing to assert on oath
that he did. The public may draw its
own conclusions Mayor Murdoch states
that he did not notify Hull of his intcn>
ton to remove h,m; so it seems that
Hull has no one to blame but himself foT
the article which appeared.
The conduct of the deputy WAS the
source of general condemnation and the
assault was everywhere spoken of as dis.
graceful and outrageous, and the fact of
his pleading guilty to such a charge is
sufficient cause for lis removal, if nothing
else.
As for the ARGUS. it has heretofore har-
bored nothing personal against Hull since
his appointment, but it considers
Eckhart inefficient. and looks upon Hull
as unfit for SO important an office,
and it will continue 10 condemn both
when occasion requires until they
are removed and the offices Of
marshal and deputy placed in proper
hands The police force of Rock IsIand>
has been an eye sore 10 the city ever
since the present management was
inaugurated, and it is the duty of "A
paper to its readers to expose incompe
tnnnu urhnrf Ii l. uhnun In nIlirns AIIn.