The herald., 1896-01-03
AN OUTRAGE

AN OUIRAGE
In another column of this issue of
TIE HERALD will be found an account
Of one of the most flsgrant and aggra-
waiting instances of abuse of official
authority ever broughS to the notice OF
the public of this county. The case
referred to is that of an old soldier
named Welch, who, while absent from
the Soldiers home on a furlough, was
arrested by bucolic constable and
committed by justice of the peace
with q conception of the law that is at
once original aud aboriginal, for va
grancy. The fact that the arrested
man presented, both in his garb and
the certificate granting him furlough
from the Soldiers home, the best kind
of evidences to the effect that he was
not vagrsnt, svailed nothing with the
individuals whom an Indifferent Provi-
dence has seen flt to clothe with lit
tie feeting authority. Fees must be
had and records must be builded, and
the helpless old man was a good
enough fish for their empty net. In
the vindication of law which he has
not violated Mr.. Welch has gone to
Jail, to be there incarcerated with men
who have violated laws in the commits
sion of dangerous and odious crimes,
for ten days.
This sort Of outrage calls for the
prompt attention and action of the
proper authorities. 1t ia but one of
innumerable instances of shameful
perversion of authority on the part of
rural constsbles and justices of the
peace. These officials, in their petty
ambition or conscienceless greed, or
both, have given q construction to the
vagrancy laws never intended by the
people who enacted them. Time and
again have men been arrested for no
other reason than that they were walk
ing along country road. The mere
fact that they were walking instead of
driving in vehicle, riding horse or
that near relative Of the arresting con-
stable, a jschass, or lolling on the
cushioned seat Of palatial railroad
car, meant that they were endowed
with all the qualifications of vsgrants,
and therefore amenable to the vagrancy
laws. Men have found it practically i'm
possible to get out Of the county by u.s.
ing the means of locomotion afforded by
unsophisticated nature; not because
the means we're unequal to the task,
but because the vigilant country con-
stable simply would not allow them to
be used for the purpose. 1t is noto-
rious that few years since man en-
deavored to walk peaceably out of this
county three different times, and on
each occasion he was arrested by zeal
GUS, fee-hunting constables and COM
mitted, by the able jurist who happened
to be dealing out DEGREES Of unlawful
ness in the vicinity at the time, for va
grancy to the county Jail in this city.
Each of these little arresting episodes
represented the transfer Of neat sum
of Taxpayers money from the county
treasury to the vest pockets of the
rustic constabulary and bench. 1t is
said that after the numerously inter.
rupted tramp had served his last SEN
tence he despairingly waited on the
mayor Of Los Angeles with request
that he be granted passports la
Russia-which would enable him to get
safely out Of the county.
It is about time that outside consta-
bles and justices we're given to under
stand that the mere fact that man is
too poor to ride on a railway or to hire
. rig when he goes from place to place,
10 no sign that he is a vagrant, and that
mere poverty, though admittedly in
convenient and undesirable, is not a
crime. The vagrancy laws were not in
tended to justify the arrest of men
who, poor in pocket and shabby in
dress, happen to tread country roads,
% long as they are peaceable and re-
spect the rights and properties OF
others.