Evening journal., 1895-01-18

reached under four years Of a partisan po-
lice board where the officer has been
brought 10 understand that the only hope
for promotion was in joining and contrib
uting TO Tammany Hall associations and
seeking through those channels the sure
road to promotion.
Tho conclusion seems irresistible that
under the circumstances such as now ex
ist in the city Of New York it becomes the
paramount duty Of the legislature to re
move as far as practicable the possibility
Of political influences securing a control
ling power over the police force.
Police Protected Vice.
The valuable evidence gathered by DR.
Parkhurst's society disclosed the circum
stance that in the securing Of evidence
against resorts of an unlawful character
and in the prosecution of keepers Of dis
reputable houses the police were not only
found to stand in actual hostility to all
efforts made to suppress vice. but stood
idly by and permitted citizens engaged in
performing duties which they should have
undertaken to be mobbed and brutally as.
saulted upon the streets.
The testimony Of this kind, in fact
showed throughout an extraordinary dis
inclination on the part Of the police, 50
desire or activity in the suppression Of.
certain descriptions OF vice and crime, a
disinclination so strong that others-at-
tempting to perform that function found
the police arrayed against them, and ex-
perienced greater embarrassment from
this circumstance than from any difficulty
connected with the suppression Of the vice
itself. 1t indicated the amazing condition
that in most of the precincts of the city
| houses of i'll repute, gambling houses. pol
icy shops, poOlrooms and unlawful resorts
of a similar character were being openly
conducted under the eyes of the police
without attempt at concealment-so pub
licly. in fact that the names of the per
sons and the street numbers of the houses
were not only known throughout the COM
munity, but published in the daily prints
and vet they remained open and ostenta-
tiously flourished.
Police Justices In League Too.
While it was impossible for your com
mittee to spend much time in considering
| police courts. enough is shown upon the
record to justify the conclusion that a
| very important reason why the police have
been able to carry on and successfully
| perpetrate their Teprehensible practices is
that at least some Of the police justices
have apparently worked in sympathy and
collusion with them.
| In conclusion, your committee expresses
| the conyictron that the testimony conclu-
| sively establishes an indictment against
| the police department of the city Of New
| York as a whole. 1t establishes the neces-
sity for radical and basic reorganization
| by the elimination of those clements which
/ may be found to be untrustworthy. ineffi-
/ Client and corrupt. The conclusion which
has impressed itself upon your committee,
| however, is that the disorganizing ele-
ments at work in the police department
are such that operate from the higher Off
cials down rather than from the patrol
men up.
1t is generally conceded that the munic-
ipal police are jealous and unsurpassed
IN efficiency and desire to protect life and
| property upon the highways Of the city
1t is a significant fact that but little cor.
ruption has been traced into the pocket:
of the ordinary patrolman. and that such
sins as may be laid at his door largely con
sist in abuse of physical force, infringe
ment upon the rights and privileges Of
| private citizens and omission to disclose
the criminal conduct Of his superiors.
The Social Evil.
1
practices which were protected by the po-
lice, and under the head of "Disorderly
| Houses says:
AS an evidence Of the extraordinary con
ditions to which this system had given
rise, it is proper to call your attention Il
the fact that in a number Of cases
women who. as keepers Of disorderly
houses had paid thousands of dollars fol
police protection, had become reduced tC
the verge of starvation. while those who
had cxacted blackmail from them were
living in luxury Their houses had been
furnished out of the earnings of these
women. or they were wearing ornaments
of iewelry purchased by them, and even
the furniture of their houses had been
paid for by those whom they had protected
in the commission of crime.
The evidence estabnShes furthermore
that not only the proprietors Of disorderly
houses pay for their illegal privileges, but
the outcasts Of society pay patrolmen on
post for permission to solicit on the public
highways, dividing their earnings with
them, and often, as appears by proof, when
brought before police magistrates and
committed to the penitentiary for disor
derly conduct in default Of bail, they com
pounded their sentences and secured bai
4 Dy lAyluE Elb DE Tlu W A4tH AA1Ah VI NAs
court or his agents, and were then releas
ed, again to ply their calling and become
| victimized as before.
The evidence Furthermore shows that il
some of the houses Of the character do
scribed visitors were systematically rob
bed. and when they made complaint a
the station house the man detailed to ex
anime into the charge failed to arrest thI
perpetrator, and frightened the victim Of
by threats and then returned and received
his compensation-an equal division o
the plumber between the thief and the off
GER
The testimony, taken as whole, con
clusively establishes that the social eyi
was and probably still is fostered and pro
tected by the police of the city. even to tn
extent Of inducing its votaries to continu'
their Illegal practices maintaining sub
stantially partnership with them in tn
traffic, absorbing the largest part Of tn
resulting profit.
The Recommendation.
The report concludes with a series O
.ruy~wFvyuuuyFUyyF,VFFyUUU ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS