The Lamar register., 1901-02-13
STRAINING AT A CNAT AND
SWALLOWING A CAMEL.

SWALLOWING a CAMEL.
President Speer and his fellow mem
bers of the Fire and Police Board
must have hard work to keep their
faces straight while conducting n bur-
lcsque investigation to find out wheth-
cr their subordinates have been graft
ing" to use the picturesque language
of the day, when they know very well
that much moreserious offensesagainst
the law are being committed every
day and every night in Denver through
their own direct consent and conniv-
ance.
Scores of gambling houses, policy
shops by the hundred, places of prosti-
tuition and assignation more numerous
than all the others combined. and doz-
ems OF deadfalls where the victims and
criminal classes congregate to divide
their plunder and devise fresh offenses
against the law are run wide open con.
tinually in this city, with the full
knowledge and consent of the Fire and
Police Board.
All this is not novel by any means,
for other Fire and Police Boards have
permitted and even encouraged simi.
lar condition of affairs, but we doubt
IL ever in the past the license unlaw-
fully extended to the vicious and Grim
inal classes was so general or so gen.
erous as at present.
1t needs no investigation to estab-
| lish these facts for they are matters of
common knowledge, and they are far
| more serious in their moral effect upon
the community than the ''srnfting" pro-
pensities of patrolmen and detectives.
The chronic violators of the law emu
merated above never practice their
vices and crimes openly in cities with
| out police permission and protection.
The gambling houses, bunco joints,
would be closed in an hour by simple
| notification from the Fire and Police
Board to that effect. They are not
closed because the highest police au-
thorities are willing that they should
| remain open. The governor, who ap-
points the Fire and Police Board,
knows this as well as anybody and If
he should order policy of close re-
striction it would be followed by the
Fire and Police Board. If the board
itself should order the closing of these
places, its fiat would be respected and
obeyed instantly by more than ninety
per cent. of them.
There is another side of the police
question in Denver which will not be
touched upon during the present So
called investigation, and that is the
extraordinary incompetency displayed
by the existing force in dealing with
persons guilty of serious crimes. Fully
a dozen murders have occurred in Den.
yer within the last two years, and we
cannot now recall a single case in
which the murderer was arrested by
our police force, If he made any effort
at all to escape detection.
We do not wish to be understood as
saying or believing that the members
of the Fire and Police Board are cor
rupt. Many of their subordinates are
unquestionably guilty of "grafting,'
usually on n petty larceny sort of scale
but there is no known reason to sup
pose that the board or the chief of po
lice is purchasable.
But that does not make the matter
much better so far as they are concern
ed, because their official recognition
and protection of chronic law-breakers
either through political influence Oh
personal negligence, is just as bad fol
the community as if it were secured
through bribery.
OF course there are questions thai
will not be touched upon during the
present farcical Investigation of petty
offenders among the detectives and po
lice officers. A competent legislative
committee or philosophical and fear
less grand jury might throw a grea
deal of light on these subjects, bu
there is little likelihood that the effor
will be made under existing condi
tions.-Denyer Republican.