Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1894-02-28
AN IMPORTANT PAPER

smyth at the meeting of the police COM
nissioners last evening:
Gentlemen of the Board of Police Commits
sioners:
In behalf of the Law and Order league
Of New Haven, appear to present the in
and complaint upon which In
Answer to our request you have granted us
q hearing. We do not come before you as |
a company of professional reformers en-
extravagant notions concerning |
the functions of the law in relation to pub |
lie morals. We know, a. we'll as you know,
that although the law may occasionally |
shut the mouth of grog shop, 1t cannot
shut the mouth of q veteran drinksr.
Neither do We appear to ask you to exer-
else your police powers to turn unfortun-
ate women out of bad houses into the
streets any faster, at least, than the char
liable and Christian agencies of the city
can find some respectable shelter for them.
In any march of reform in which we may
ask your aid we do not propose to play
any faster time than the average reason
able man, unless utterly morally spawned,
can be expected to keep up to. We shall
as may be seen to be reasonable and prac-
teal by any man who carries the ordinary
moral side-lights in his head. We wish it
| also to be distinctly understood
| by you that each and every ef-
| fort which as private citizens
we are compelled to make for
the enforcement of the laws against no.
| torious evils, We make under protest as q
function which private citizens ought not
to be obliged to assume. The fact that In
several instances we ourselves have been
under the necessity of obtaining legal evil
dence for the prosecuting officer. in order
/ 4 Srb< h. a.
| Unknown violators of the laws, we beg
leave now to present to you as in itself q
complaint against the efficiency of the po-
lice department.. If private citizens, by
| the use of private means, must discharge
| neglected functions of the police in order
| to secure the punishment of certain Of
fences against public morals and public
| decency, this fact Of seeming officious ess
on our part In the enforcement of law We
now claim and insist constitutes itself
charge against the department which the
people tax themselves to maintain in
order that it may perform such duties for
them.
One other preliminary understanding
should be gained bstween MS both In fair
ness to the police and to the position held
by your compliments. 1t will be said in
police circles on the one hand that the
officers ara naturally reluctant to interfere,
If they can avoid it, in the discipline Of
students for habits of dissipation. On the
other hand it will be said IN college circles
that the responsibility for any disorderly
conduct of the students outside the college
grounds properly falls upon the police. If
l had the honor of appearing in this matter
before the corporation of Yale university
there are some things which in the pres
ence of that governing board Of the college
might perhaps be freely spoken OF, which
1t is unnecess sry and inexpedient for US
to relate in the information that we would
now lay before you. I shall make. there
fore, in your presence al little distinction
as possible between Clown born" roughs
and ''college gangs" While recognizing
in fairness to policemen their traditional
tenderness toward students, wish 1t to be
distinctly understood as our position be-
fore you we hold that outside college
grounds, on the streets, in public places,
aud certainly in any disorderly resorts all
persons, residents or students, should be
treated alike under the law; and We ask
you, if you deem 1t necessary, to instruct
| the policemen on their beats not to make
/ any distinction whatsoever between differ
| ent classes of young men who may indulge
| in any disorderly conduct.
Gentlemen, IN our letter asking for this
hearing have already laid before you in q
general way the nature of our complaint,
| and cited the ordinances and statutes I'M
| der which We bring it. We shall confine
our Information at this our first hearing
before you more particularly to the first
police precinct, holding in reserve for the
present any information concerning other
portions of the city.
THE TENDERLoIN DISTRICT OF NEW HAVEN.
On the basis of information which is in
our possession, much of it resting on aft
davits affirm that If line be drawn from
the Yale campus, past Center church to the
police headquarters, and If further lines be
conceived to radiate from it like far
southwards and eastwards for about half 9
mile, there would be indicated thereby 6
region In New Haven which by the grace
of the police and the Indifference of citi
| zens has been suffered to become, and nov
may properly be designated as, the Ten
derloin district of New Haven-a distric
which for almost open gambling and con
centrated vice astonishes men who have
had occasion to gain some knowledge oil
the unsavory parts of New York city.
have In my possession list of thirty five
, places, gambling resorts and places of IL
odor, concerning all of which tn.
league has obtained some definite in
formation. I have, besides, lis
of some dozen similar places, witt
regard to which we have received
which We have as yet made ourselves NJ
special investigation. At the outset Of
our complaint I ask you, gentlemen, t.
examine for yourselves the "ordinanc,
| book" which the superintendent of polio.
keeps in conformity with city ordinance
section 274, and to inform yourselves
against how many such places complaints
have been entered by the police during tn,
past six months in accordance with the re-
quirements of said ordinance.
OUR LEGAL STANDING AS coMPLA1NANrs
In order that we might better judge TO-
ourselves tie competency of some of oul
evidence, and that We might gain goot
legal standing before you as complain
ants, We recently laid before the prosecut
ing officer information concerning min,
places where the laws are violated. Til.
state upon our information brought &C
ton in ali these cases, and eight parsone
from seven places have been convicted il
the city court. The decisions of thu
court In these cases establishes the com
potency and the credibility Of our evidence
Our further alleg atoms before yol
rest In part upon testimony. the
character of which has thus beer
stamped with judicial approval. Ou1
allegations 1est also upon the testimo
ny OF other witnesses, whom We could
produce, II necessary, in court, and also
upon Information gained from sources
which must necessarily bs regarded by us
as confidential, but which We have exam.
lned for ourselves with scrupulous care.
Among the swar ming places of malodor.
Gus morals, to which have just referred
are to be included at least twelve gambling
rooms; the rest comprise illegttimate ga
loons-drinking places, that is, with pecu
liar social cOnveniences not set down in
their ltcenses-cafes and re staurants which
offer curtained booths and connections
with other rooms for immoral meeting
places, and also some so-called hotels. Al
of these places on our list We have had in
vestigated sufficiently not only to safety
ourselves as to the correctness of thei1
reputation, but also to show with what
comparative ease sufficient legal evidence
against them might be obtained by thu
officers of the law.
PUBLIC POLICY PLAYING.
| In substantiation of our cause for com
plant of the ineficiency of the admins
tration Of the police department, I refe,
first to the federation of policy playing
My personal attention was called to this
matter some time ago by teache,
in one of our public schools,
who told me of the mischief
which policy playing was working
among the school children. Last June
complaints having come to us from fam
} lilies who were kept in beggary by thu
thriving policy business in New Haven
} the Law and Order league secured infor
| nation which led to the arrest, identifies