The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-01-10
rhe POLICE clenrlr 10 Blame.

lnt EOAAtt SttaEty W DA@htC
The Hoboken police appear to us
to make a very imperfect defence to
the charges of the German foreign
Office in respect to the Elbe arrests.
They talk a great deal about the seri-
Gus character Of the riot which had
taken place. about the necessity OF ar
resting the criminals and about the
propriety of the Immediate pursuit on
board the vessel where the rioters had
taken refuge. All this is wasting
words. The German Government
freely admits all that the Hoboken
police claim.
The real grounds of complaint are
these
~ Failure to notify the German
Consulate of the arrests as soon as
possible after they had taken place.
q Failure to notify the German
Consulate before the supplementary
arrests were made.
() The knocking down of First
Officer Bardeleben.
al The wanton and unjustifiable
arrest of that gentleman and Of the
second engineer.
() The clubbing of the prisoners or
the way from the ship to tine station
house.
The reply made by the police to the
first two of these heads is that they
were not aware Of the treaty obliga-
ton to give such notification. This
discloses a stolid and inscriptions
neglect of duty which is amazing
even in the Hoboken police. 1t is
clearly the duty of police authorities
everywhere to keep posted on the
laws and rules of procedure which
may apply to their daily routine of
duties. The occurrence of crime on a
foreign vessel moored to a Hoboken
wharf or the flight to one of a crim-
inal is an Occurrences of hourly proba-
bility. and only the police of
Hoboken would calmly remain in
ignorance of their rights and duties in
case of such an occurrence.
Passing on to the fourth
head, we find the police make no de-
Tense at all. They blandly ignore the
allegations of the German govern
ment. Are we to conclude that they
have no defense? Must we suppose
that the act was committed as a re-
suit of angry passion and without
justification. The fifth charge, Ser
geant Rathjen, who was the volun-
teer leader of the police buccaneering
party, denies so far as to say that he
did not see anyone dubbed. Never
theless, he discIoses enough Of the
temper of his men that night to lend
strong color to the charge that the
prisoners we're brutally used.
BY way of retaliation the Hoboken
police charge that the officers of the
Elbe deliberately connived at the
escape of the principal rioter. In
plain English, we do not believe a
word of il. The man may have es-
capped, but if he did it was without
the knowledge or consent OF the Off
GERS of the vessel, who seem to have
been DESTROYS TO aid the police, while
protecting the dignity of their flag. II
tine Hoboken police thought it true
that the officers of the ship aided the
escape of a criminal, they should have
complained to the State Department.
Our government would have been
justified, in view of such an offence. in
refusing to admit the Captain OF Mr..
Bardeleben to an American port
again. Made at this time, however,
the charge is simply incredible. 1t
looks as If it were ~spitefully made to
bolster up a bad case.
So far as we can size up the situa-
ton, the ignorance and hot-headed
violence of the Hoboken police have
brought the country to the verge OF a
very unpleasant complication with
Germany, which has only been avert
ed through the very mild and courte-
Gus nature of the appeal for rectifica-
ton made to our State Department.