Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-20
NOT WITHOUT GROUNDS.
A Police Officer Makes vigor-
Gus Protest Against Certain
Men and Matters.
He Explains Why So Few
Criminals Get Their Just
Punishment.

From Fridays Daily.
M. Il. Johnson, who was arrested several
days ago for stealing q shirt and a fur cap
from M. P. Supplies store on West Park
street, wa~sdischarged from custody yester-
day, the complaining witness refusing to
appear against him. johnson paid Mr..
Supple for thegoods and also paid the costs
in tie case. amounting to about twenty
dollars, and the matter was dropped by
the authorities, as no evidence for the
prosecution could be obtained.
A we'll known officer commenting on the
case said to q MINER reporter: This
johnson case is only q sample of what we
experience almost daily. People come to
us with complaints Of all kinds and demand
that we shall arrest the offenders. In al
most nine cases out OF every ten where we
make an arrest the matter generally is
compromised and the guilty parties
are released from custody and
turned loose upon the commu-
nifty to steal, if they are arrested
for larceny, or repeat whatever their Of
tense may nave been upon other parties.
The worst OF it all is that the public is
not aware Of these things, and blames the
police and the police court for being too
lenient with offenders, or for not ~inyesti-
eating matters more thoroughly. OF
course such proceedings are wrong, but
what can we do to avoid them? Take
johnson's case for q sample: He stole
the goods, they were found in his posses
sion, and yet he is a free man now, and
simply because he squared himself with
Mr.. Sipple. It is perhaps more satisfac-
ton to Mr.. sipple to have received
pay, for his goods than it
would be to know that the party who |
the theft was in Jail, but that
is not the proper way in which to look at |
matters. johnson was guilty of a
crime and he should have been punished
|or it. You, or Mr.. Supple, may say that
The fact hat he was compelled to pay aneat
little sum to settle the matter, of itself was
enough, and that the cap and
'hirt cost him a great deal more than if he
bought them, and to q certain extent
are right, but in reality to deal in that
way with thieves is only to encour-
lge crime. Don't you suppose that if
he fellow had received a good
ong term in jail that it
oui h0fO u1u q uOTo WuOl0bOm0 0uGCG |
his subsequent career than the mere
OF being compelled to pay twenty.iv
'r thirty dollars and going scot free will
ave? Then again; now suppose he had
'een sent up, other fellows with light
would have beard of it and it would
ave caused them to think twice before
hey would attempt a similar offense. '
When we complain to people, especially !
usiness men, who compromise with such
rmina's, they invariably reply that. they
annot afford to prosecute men, because it
urts them in their business and set that
lea up as a defense of their action. '
GU newspaper men and others are c
the tim bowling at us because we didn't {
IN the 'pinkies.' buns and FOUNDERS out Of @
own. The reason we don't do so is simply v
cause We can't, we've tried it repeatedly b
they got the laugh on US. We can t
My arrest them on the charge of vagrancy p
al the minute we do 81 trey begin to lay Il
to get out, and what ia more, they a
lcceed every time, especially the pink g. N
) soon as they are arrested til y sub a
ena restaurant keepers, and often mer- q
ants, with whom they do business. b
hen these men are sworn they always e'
that the defendants have money p
tn which to pay for what they get and a,
they haven't any money at times f
at their credit is perfectly good for what vi
or they may want. This settles the vag tc
and the barnacles are turned loose oil
d the police get cussed for saddling unnec- hi
'ary expenses upon the city or county. of
ichever may be made the prosecutor. 10
ese business men whip by their testimony In
p those ducks to evade the law tell US that SIX
!, fellows are good customers of theirs gu
d that they 9don't want to tc
into trouble with them, be.
lse it may hurt their business.
dead wrong, and whenever I think OF it
IT hot, but what are we going to doa
it. ALI we can do is to grin and bear
| guess, and let the 'pinkies' run the
N. We are helpless. With this the
per walked away, while the reporter
ught and thought and also wendell bis Ju
? from the scene. an