St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-13
OUR INEFFICIENT POLICE.

OUR INEFFICIENT POLICE.
Our citizens, who for the past six
months have been kept in a state of
terror by the depredations of the foot.
pads; our bankers, whose messengers
have been robbed in broad daylight; our
merchants, whose stores have been bur-
glarized and whose property has been
stolen; and our chief of police, whose
office i'll the city hall has been en-
tered, and his safe blown, Will be
thankful for the assurance that comes
from the Pioneer Press that the
police force of st. Paul is an eff
Gent. well-disciplined and every-way
exemplary body of nell. The intelli-
gence will be the more gratifying to
them from the fact that they had been
laboring under grave deluSions relative
to this matter. The breaches of the
peace that have occurred, the frequent
highway rob6erieS and burglaries, were
all false-inveDted to throw discredit
upon the city administration. Those
who suffered personal injuries at the
hands of the thugs or loss of property
have no cause for complaint. They are
mere victims of disordered magma
ton. They think they suffered and lost
property, but they didn't.
1t is perhaps natural, in view of the
personal relations of the Pioneer Press
10 the present administration, that it
should attempt the defense of a govern
nent whose acts are utterly indefensi-
bic, and endeavor to make the situation
appear as favorable as possible: but it
was neither necessary nor wise to go to
the extremity of flying in the face of
well-attested facts, aud by falsehood
seek to throw discredit upon the intel
ligence of the community. Every cit
iZen knows that never before in the his
tory of st. Paul have the criminal classes
enjoyed such immunity from punish
ment as during the present administra-
ton. 1t is true, as the Pioneer Press
asserts, that some haunts of vice
have been suppressed, but the most
diSreputable still exist and flourish.
not alone with the knowledge, but with
the encouragement,o of the police. There
are several notorious resorts of conf
dence men and skin gamblers that
openly defy the law every hour OF the
day. but they are not molested. The
police find in these places convenient
resorts. The resorts that have been
suppressed are those whose keep
ers refused to "come down" with the
price demanded for immunity. The
good fellows" have continued to do
business at the old stand. without let or
hindrance from the police.
But the saloons are not the only vio-
lators of law, nor the worst ones. 1t is
only when they become the resorts of
the criminal classes that they become
dangerous. The better class of saloon
keepers. who make it point to observe
all lawful regulations imposed upon
the liquor traffic, and do not take the
trouble to bride the officers of the law,
find themselves subject to the most
stringent restrictions. If the hour of
midnight sounds before they have
turned the key in their doors they are
called to immediate account. Their
next door neighbor may have noisy
crowd of jewellers IN his place long
after the closing hour, but he is not
molested, for he is "a good fellow"
Every citizen knows that never before
in the history of the city has crime been
as rampant as under the present Repub-
lican administration. Life and properly
have alike been in constant danger, and
criminals well known to the police and
to the citizens generally have boldly
paraded themselves in the public view.
1t is not true that the judges of the
municipal court are responsible for the
immunity which these men enjoy, for
whenever the police have presented
proofs of the dangerous character or un-
lawful conduct of the prisoners ar.
raIgned before them they have been
dealt with according to law. To the
failure of the police to present that evI-
dence is due the fact that so manv ar
raigned before the court have escaped
punishment. 1t is not within the power
of any court to punish a man on the
presumption or probability that he is
guilty of crime. Evidence to establish
the fact is required by law, and by
failure to produce that evidence the
police, not the court, render themselves
liable to public condemnation.
And in this connection it is proper to
state that the mayor is actually and alb