Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-08-24
POLICE BOARDS DISCHARGE OF RE-
PUBLICAN OFFICERS CONDEMNED.
MAY BRING SUIT FOR LIBEL.
MEN DO NOT PROPOSE TO REST UN-
DER THE BOARDS sLANDER.
All Had Splendid RecOrds-MayOr
Jones Calls Attention to the Evil
dent Intention of the Conn
missiOners to Build II
Political Machine.

The action of Police Commissioners Fyke
and Johnson in disnissinS sixteen Repub-
| licans from the police force Saturday after
noon merely for political reasons has met
the hearty condemnation OF a great ma
| 5ority of the people of Kansas City and
! was discussed freely upon the streets Sat-
| urday night and yesterday. Sympathy for
| the officers who were turned down to sat
isfy petty political spite and to bring
about a condition of affairs that will lead
this fall to the city polls being thrown en-
tirely at the mercy of the Democracy was
expressed on every hand, added to which
was determination to see the DISCHARGED
men vindicated. That there were no real
grounds for the wholesale dismissal of
the officers is shown by the fact that none
but Republicans, men who hold different
political opinions from Commissioners Fyke
and johnson, We're chosen to be sacrificed
and that among them were some of the
best known and most efficient officers on
the force. Against none of the men dis
charged could it be said they were ineffi-
cient or negligent. and notwithstanding
Commissioner Fyke's resolution recon-
| mending their removal brought the charge
| Of mot being fit or the proper persons to
| discharge the duties of police officers" the
whole matter was laid bare when Com
missioner Johnson blurted out that the
| men had been mixing too much in politics:
had allied themselves with a secret politi-
| cal organization and had" Commissioner
Johnson didn't say 1t. but he meant it,
| worked against the success of the Demo-
| cratic party.
| The statement made that the discharged
| men were efficient officers is borne out by
the records of the past three years. In
1893 Walter Whitsett, who was then pa
| trolman. was fourth in the number of ar
rests made on state charges. He followed
three detectives, and led the patrolmen.
| Officer Hoody stood seventh on the list,
| Sergeant Blockburger eleventh. Officer
| Nichols eighteenth and Officer Longan
twenty-second. In 1894 Sergeant Whitsett
| led all Of the men connected with the po-
| lice department in the number of arrests
| on state charges made. He had thirty
| nine. Blockburger Hobby and Longan
| stood thirteenth. fourteenth and fifteenth
! respectively on the list. Officer Nichols
| was twenty-fifth. and w. S. Campbell,
| WHO had been made a lieutenant, and was
| not supposed to be where he could make
many arrests. stood fortieth. In the record
| of stolen property recovered that year,
| Sergeant Whitsett stood first of the entire
! department, recovering something like
| s5.940.70 worth of stolen property. The
nearest man to him was Detective Pat
Hunt, who secured 81, ,s66. 30 of stolen prop
erty. The other men recovered property
| as follows: Hobby. S3l6; Campbell s2l7;
| burger. SIG.
| In 1895 there was no record of arrests
| Sergeant
| list of the entire department, with T. J.
! Kennedy next. In 1886 the men were all
the amount of stolen .poperty recovered.
The records will not substantiate Commits
| siorer Fyke's allegations that the officers
| dismissed at his instigation were not the
proper persons to perform the duties of
| police officers His purpose in dismissing
the men was inadvertently disclosed by the
| remark of Commissioner Johnson about
| the men mixing too much in politics.
What gain there will be to the city by
the striking from the police pay rolls the
names of sixteen efficient men is not ap-
| parent on the face. On the other hand, its
purpose is plainly visible behind a thin
! mask of inattention to duty. and the loss
| will be only too strongly felt at the fall
4 election.
1t is evidently the intention of the two
commissioners to wink at the methods of
| the gang in the tough precincts of the
| Ninth and other wards in the city and to
| give the bosses and thir tools full sway in
I corrupting elections in kensas City. as has
been in wears past. Insufficient police pro
lection and the knowledge of the inability
| of the state to successfully prosecute cleo
| ton thieves and frauds will lend a great
| impetus TO the gang to adopt again its old
| rascally tactics. 1t is probable that all
| Republicans on the force will be dis
| charged.
| All of the officers who We're discharged
! Saturday will meet to-day and consult with
| attorneys as to what plan is best to COM
| pei retraction of the charges of their be-
ing improper persons to discharge the du
| ties of police officers. The men believe this
| statement of Commissioner Fykes to be
| libelous and there will be every effort
| made to have 1t refuted, SO long it is in
| exact contra diction of what the records Ie-
| veal.