Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-04-17
/ Very DemOraIizing state of
Things.

peculiar way. 1ue uoW OouhNhi w
IDENTIFY doubtful OF their powers, and iu-
timidated by the proceedings at present
pending before the Supreme Court, have
applied themselves to running the Board
of Police Commissioners, and initiated
their action by firing" Major Furrey
in a very unusual and unfair manner, on
general allegations which had not been
communicated to the member incul-
pated. The nearly uniform sentiment
Of the people OF Los Angeles is that the
deposed Commissioner had the right to
be served with notice of the charges
made against him, and to be confronted
by his accusers. That official announces
it to be his purpose to test the question
as to whether he has been legally re-
moved, and we are thus confronted with
the possibility that we may have two.
bodies claiming to be the Board OF Police
Commissioners. The right of the Council
to remove any official appointed by them
under the new Charter is largely con-
ceded, but the manner of exercising this
right is almost universally condemned.
Meanwhile, and quite naturally, every
thing tends to o moralization OF the
force itself, whose efficiency is OF the
first Importance to the people OF Los An
geles. If the matter were not unusually
serious there is a comic element in the
situation calculated to provoke hilarity.
When the first assignments were made
on the Police force, as the outcome OF
new and reform administration, there
was universal cry of derision. Public
sentiment was 80 unmistakably aroused
as to some Of the names selected that
the Commissioners started in to revise
the list. They undoubtedly amended 1T
very materially, but did it through
the medium of medical exam
nations. Tne persons marked for
decapitation were made to fail
in these examinations. As general
thing the Objectionable members of the
force were very robust fellows while
some of thoee who supplanted them,
though possessing excellent characters,
could not run half block for their lives.
The medical examiner had his cue,
however, and he carried out the comedy
to perfection. The men who were desig'
mated as the ones to be "fred," even
though they could pose as the Farnese
Hercules, we're reported as physically
incompetent, while in some cases men
loaded up with neuralgia and rheuma-
tism, and perhaps cerebro-spinal-menin-
gifts, passed with the ease with which
one slides off an orange peel.
The community had scarcely got over
its loud guffaw at this neat piece of
finesse when the present embroglio
sprung up. The question on every lip is,
how and when will it end?
Meanwhile, what can be expected
of a force which is being made
the subject of such remarkable ex-
peiiments? Some of the new Off
GERS have very sensibly neglected to
provide themselves with uniforms, not
knowing when they will be compelled to
walk the plank. 1t would be hard to
imagine anything more calculated to de-
moralize the best force in the world.
There is general impression that Chief
Burns will not be disturbed for the pres
ent, but as to the force at large, not a
man, scarcely, feels that his official head
is safe upon his shoulders for a week
ahead. Anything more entirely calcu-
lated TO destroy discipline and proper
esprit de corps it would be hard to con-
ceive. With all the invectives directed
against it, the Los Angeles police force
has been an efficient and reliable body
OF men, and it is hard that its members
should be made the victims OF reform
in our municipal politics.
A bad beginning very rarely makes a
good ending. The CROSS purposes and
dissensions thus early developed are not
likely to be transmitted into harmony
very soon. There is no wand of the
magician available for that purpose that
we can discern, and quite evidently the
end is not yet. But we have the blessed
consciousness that we have got reform.