The record-union., 1891-01-28
POLICE COURT Y1GoR.

POLICE COURT vIGOR.
The action of Police Judge Cravens of
this city in refusing to dismiss a case
compromised ION the outside" is worthy
of all commentator. The RECORD
UNION has heretofore taken occasion to
condemn the practice of using criminal
process as a means of private ends.
There has been enough of such business
in this State to make it scandalous, to
tempt, and the law into disrepute.
The case Immediately under notice is a
typical one. A party takes out a warrant
charging two men with crime. When the
peoples agents at the peoples cost have
apprehended the defendants, and the
court, at the peoples expense, has con-
vened, and is prepared to examine into
the charge laid, motion is made to dis
miss the case because the prosecuting
witness has disappeared, and it is init
mated that the witness and the defend
ants have settled the matter, and there
fore the proceedings in court should come
to an end.
City Attorney Hart opposed the dis
missal Of the case referred to, declared
chat he was not party to the disappear
ance of the prosecutor, and that he would
never consent to such use of the process
of the court. Thereupon the Judge read
lecture which ought to be trumpeted
abroad. He would not dismiss the case;
rather than do it he would continue it
from day to day for year, and in the
meantime such ability as the law has to
find the prosecuting witness and compel
him to appear, should be exerted. The
practice of fixing up cases on the outside
must cease. If there are to be compro-
misses and settlements they must be made
in court.
This is the kind of judicial preaching
the people approve; they are weary of
having their courts used as cat's-paws for
the mean ends of others. They insist that
all proceedings relative to dismissals shall
take place in open court and be laid bare
to the sunlight of publicity. And the
people are right. There are cases, and
they are frequent on the calendars of Po-
lice Courts, where public peace, neigh
borhood quiet, and the ends of justice are
conserved by settlement without trial.
The law permits certain class of cases
to be adjusted by the prosecuting witness
and the defendants. For the law does not
encourage contention nor delight in pros
ecution. Its aim is the conservation of
peace, the protection of the citizen in per-
son and property. and the punishment of
offenders, not retributiyely, but as a
warning to others that they may be de-
tered from committing crime.
To all compromises and settlements the
court should be party. Its process must
not be used to compel thieves to disgorge,
nor aid rufflans to buy the silence of their
victims. When settlements are desirable
and promotive Of good ends, let them be
made in open court, and the record with
the stated cause be written up in the
judgment Of the court. We trust, there
fore, that Judge Cravens' judicial back
bone will remain erect, that he will, so
far as this city is concerned, crush out the
scandalous practices that have so much
obtained in California, and that he and
the City Attorney will keep hands locked
on this proposition. For the result of the
policy will be a diminution of prescott
tons, and therefore conservation of muni-
cipal economy. Trivial complaints will
grow less, and parties who enter upon
prosecutions will be those only who in
tend to carry them through, and who do
not begin them as means to the accom-
plishment of private ends.
Severity of punishment is not so effect
I've as its certainty. 1t is the probability
of cheap escape from the hand of the law
that encourages many petty offender in
his doing. But there is mingling of
certainty and severity that is highly eff
cacious in checking brutality, and in de-
terring the lawless. The RECORD UNION
therefore feels it to be its duty to COM
mend the new Police Judge for re-
fusing to give the two young
men, who brutality and causelessly
beat Chinaman recently, the OPP
portunity to escape with fine. On
the contrary. the court sent the youths to