El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-08-01

or failure of duty by any public officer
and in cases where the instances o.
such neglect are not presented by in
formation, or whenever the same may
come to his knowledge, it is his duty
to bring the facts before the grand
jury. And negligence of this duty is q
misdemeanor. The section is as fol-
lows:
Art 33.-Duty to ,present officer for
neglect of duty, etc.
1t shall be the duty of the district or
county attorney to present to the court
having Jurisdiction, any officer, by in
formation. for the neglect or failure of
| any duty enjoined upon such officer,
when such neglect or failure can be
presented by information, whenever it
\ shall come to the knowledge of
been neglect or failure of
duty upon the part of said officer; and
it shall be his duty to bring to the no.
| tice of the grand jury all acts of VIC
lation OF law. or neglect or failure of
duty upon the part of any officer, when
such violation, neglect, or failure are
not presented by information, and
whenever the same may come to his
knowledge. Code of Criminal Pro-
cedure.)
The two following articles of the
penal code need little comment. They
are good morsels to mediate upon.
Has the mayor neglected his duty?
Did ex-Justice of the Peacs Bridgers
ever neglect his duty? Let each citi-
zen Judge for himself.
Art. 1872. Justice of the peace, etc.
n -
the peace, mayor, or rec rider shall
know the fact that an offense against
the gaming laws has been committed
by any person, and shall fail or neglect
to cause such person to be arrested
and prosecuted for the same, he shall
be punished by fine not less than twen-
ty-tive nor more than one hundred
dollars.
Art. 393. Peace officer failing to in
form.-If any peace officer shall know
that any person has committed an Of
Tense against the gaming laws, and
shall neglect or fail to give Informal
tIon thereof to some Justice of the
peace, mayor, or recorder, having jur-
isdiction to try such offense, he shall be
punished by fine not less than twenty
five nor more than one hundred dollars.
Penal Code.)
And the two articles printed below
show that the mayor is liable to pun
ishment for misdemesnor.
Art 294. Wilful neglect of official
duty.-If any officer of the law shall
wilfully or negligently fail to per-
form any duty imposed on him by the
penal code or code of criminal proce-
dure, he shall, when the act of omis- |
sion is not otherwise defined, be deem |
ed guilty of misdemeapor and be pun |
ished as prescribed in the succeeding |
article.
Art. 295. General penalty in the |
absence of any other.-Whenever, in |
the penal code or the code of Grimm |
al procedure, 1t is declared that an Of |
hcer Is guilty of an offence on account |
oil any particular act or omission, and !
there is not in the penal code any
assigned for the same, |
such officer shall be deemed guilty of q |
aud shall be fined not |
exceeding two hundred dollars.
So far as the facts in this case go, our
position is impregnable. We have all |
the law on our side. But as we have
said before, law is worthless without |
public sentiment behind it. And laws
lnenforced are positively harmful.
But the real enemy is the public SER
want sworn to enforce the laws, who
pays not the slightest attention to their
requirements.