The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-12-28
POLICE DINNER.
Superior Officers Hear Clever
Speeches and Receive
Praise.
GOOD TIME FOR ALL
Speeches by Mayor Pagan,
Judge Hoos. Judge Nevin,
James Luby and
Others.
GOOD TIME FOR ALL

POhlmannS S last night. 1t was an elab-
crate affair. lit was in honor of the as
sociation's legislative committee. Police
Captain John 7. Kelly, as chairman OF
the Hudson county branch of the State
association, and as chairman of the com
mittee of arrangements, called upon
Chief of Police Murphy to preside. This
was after cigars had been passed around
The members had enjoyed a bountiful re-
past.
In presenting the Chief as the presiding
officer of the evening, Captain Kelly in
timated that the Superior Police Officers
Association was organized for mutual
protection and the prevention of any leg
isiation that would materially interfere
in the work of mutual help in case OF
sickness, etc. The object of the associa-
ton, he said, was also to help families OF
any superior officer who might die; to
offer So a week during the illness of a
member and proffer $3.50 as a funeral
| benefit. The Captain said it was under
stood that any action on the part of the
association would not interfere with
proper police discipline.
Chief Murphy bade welcome in a hearty
manner. In the course of the social ses-
sion Mr.. Phil Heck sang a number of
thet latest songs. Addresses were made
by Chief of Police Tenney of Elizabeth,
Police Commissioner Adoiph Laundering,
Postmaster William O. Armbruster of
Union Hill, Police Captain Cleary of
Trenton, eX-Tax Commissioner John E.
Macarthur, ex-Direcr. p William Quinn of
the Board of Education Mayor E'agan of
Hoboken, Mayor Bergkamp of West Ho-
boken, Police Justice Hoos, Chief Nc
Cauley of West Hoboken. Factory Inspec-
tor Dod, Colonel Gil. Robinson, Clerk Of
the Police Board; ex-JusIice of the Peace
John j. Nevin, Commissioner of Appeals
John Mehl, Jr.; Police Surgeon Nevin,
Police Captain Cox, President of the State
Association, and James Luby,
Chief Tenney, of Elizabeth, spoke on
the good of the order.
Police Justice Ho0s spoke of the aid the
police had given him in the prosecution
Of his work M as police justice BY the the care are
full way in Which the police prepared
their cases.
Mr.. James Luby said that the attitude
of the public or at least that section of
the pubic which cultivated sensational
ism towards the police forces in various
cities, was indiscreet and injudicious.
The men had been asked to do things
that We're impossible and other things
that were clearly outside their functions,
and as might be expected the results
We're disastrous The modern police sys-
tenn as devised by Sir Robert Peel, and
as it had been adopted throughout our
American cities, was intended merely TO
effect the suppression of crime and not
to exercise censorship over private
morals.
Confined to this object absolute
efficiency was possible and the public
would be justified in demanding it. But
when inconSiderate, oyer-zea.ous and
fanaticaI people required the police to go
behind drawn blinds and locked doors to
supervise matters which concerned only
private conduct and private, morals then
a great discouragement fell upon those
who were subjected to such unreasonable
demands. Weighted by their sense of the
impossibility of the task, revolving against
1t : as being Inconsistent with their
own conceptions of duty and with, their
ideals of manhood and Individual liberty,
the police officials in numerous cases be-
came demoralized, respondent in the first
place and later filled with that cynical
spirit which is described by the popular
expression that if they were to
RaTs Mei have as name the game sags night sach Is
the secret of much of the police corrup-
tion which has recently been Witnessed
and so long as a mistaken public spirit
demands that the pol ce do the work that
the churches and schools should do, just
SO long must we expect failure and dis
appointment and even corruption to be
the order of the day.
Jersey City has not been free from uil-
reasonable criticism of the police. We
have seen more Importance attached by
a section of the public to Sunday base
ball game than to an epidemic of bur
glary. People who sit still and let them
selves be robbed without complaint have
gone in numbers and in force to the City
Hall and Police Headquarters uttering
political threats to suppress the innocent
amusement of some of their fellow citi-
zens. Fortunately, however, the Jersey
City police have passed comparatively un-
Of the credit of this is due to
the public, who have been affected
by no man of Rooseveltan hysteria but
have gone to the polls one election after
I a nd hox cf 1nt1 n M p he
vast majority of thenl-as have Inscribed
the woru "Liberality" in unlnis akable
characters at the head OF their mandate
to the public officials of this city.
Besides this popular support the police
have had the advantage Of Commission
ers to govern them who have combined
principle and resoiute discipline with a
practical sense of the true duties of a
police force and thus our men have nor
only escaped unscathed but have improv-
ed in tone while others have passed
through seasons of sad tribulations.
Mr.. Luby closed with an allusion to
the Greater Jersey City scheme which
he hoped to see realized by the consent
ct al the municipalities Of the county.
He thought the confidence of the public
in the police as preservers of law and or
der and protectors of property would
greatly help the development of the city,
which had Enthusiastically set in in the last
| two years, and he hoped in time as the
city became a rival of New York its
police force would consist entirely of SUI
p-liOi oiliCtIS dilu luC CltlZtuS sWOulQ De
able to say attaching literal meaning to
the words that il was the very finest
Mr. John Mehl told of the increase of
nis business and said when it was first
started the streets of that city We're dark
and illyS21ghted at nights. Now they were
better lighted even in that remote sec
ton than the streets of New York The
police force had grown as fast as his
business.
In introducing Marshall Van Wrinkle the
Chief declared that the efficiency of the
police would be very much handicapped
in arresting criminals If the District At
torney's office were occupied by incompe-
tent persons not working in harmony
wit hthe police. because Jersey City was
nearer to the crime centre of New
York than Harlem, and If the GRIM
inal classes knew they would not be
convicted, but have merely to spend a
few. weeks in the county Jail awaiting
trial, g bad state of affairs would exist
here. The Chief said that Mr. Van Wrinkle
had been successful in prosecuting two
of the most notorious gangs of burglars
that operated In this city. He referred
to the Jack Sheppard gang and the
Barney. Harris gang of store robbers.
Mr.. Van Wrinkle spoke Of the condition
He paid high compliment to the police
force of the municipalities of the county,
and alluded especially to the efficient
manner in which they brought their cases
into court. He also spoke of his E----l
belief in taking care OF first offenders
against the law. He said he felt much
abstraction from the fact that he has re-
osnders % asainst & III t6e Az and anz sad 5ss II