The age-herald., 1901-12-12
LETTERS FROM
 THE PEOPLE.
TOO MANY SHOOTING AFFRAYs.

To the Editor of the Age-Herald.
 Only a short time ago, from all evil
 dence brought out, a 16-year-old boy
 was ruthlessly shot down, presumably
 because the police got tired of chasing
 him. One of the balls from this police
 mans pistol flew wide of its mark and
 sped across Nineteenth street-one of
 the principal streets of the city-and at
 an hour when the streets were crowded
 with church people; now its a negro shot
 while stealing coal, so it Is said. The po-
 liceman who did the shooting expresses
 great surprise when he found he had
 killed the negro, saying he only meant
 to scare him. Now, can any one be
 surprised if he shoots a man when he
 points a pistol at him and fires?
 This thing of policemen shooting at
 people for any little thing Is getting en-
 tirely too frequent in Birmingham and
 some means ought to be found to put
 a stop to it. The law does not give a
 policeman the right to shoot a man un-
 less in self-defense, which in the last
 two intances is certainly not the case.
 The writer of this knows of an instance
 where three negroes were riding on a
 dray one lost his balance and fell, hit
 ting his head upon a rock and being
 quite seriously injured; one stayed with
 him, the other went upon run for water
 or a doctor, and was suddenly stopped
 by policeman at the point of pistol.
 What excuse can a policeman give for such conduct? If the negro had not
 stopped, don't you think the policeman would have shot him-that is Judging from past records and if he had would he not have been guilty of murder, and last, but not least would he not have been turned loose? What's to keep a
 policeman from calling to you late or early at night when you are running for a car to stop, and you not hearing him
 and not stopping, to shoot you down in cold blood? This is only a very little that could be said on this line. but this
 certainly is enough to put people think ing.
 The question of these murders-they are
 nothing less--should be taken up by the
 states attorney and pushed to the limit.
 It Is his duty and he ought to do it. The
 fact that a man is a policeman does not
 give ..lm the right to shoot at people in- discriminatory.
 The Police Commissioners of Birming- ham ought to look more closely in to | these matetrs; when they find a man on | the force who is excitable and does not use the proper judgment, he ought to be | discharged.
 | One instance that the writer knows of | is especially pernicious. A colored boy was going home last Saturday night; | was standing on corner one block from where he works, and was arrested for vagrancy. The policeman would not go | one block with him so as to prove he was | alright, would not even let him telephone | to any one to come and get him out. NOW | that is the case of a negro, and a gooo | one; what's to keep him from arrestrng | other people in the same way! NO ooupt these arrests are largely the cause or Birmingham showing such a large crim- inal per centage.
 Since the first part Of this was writ ten another outrage has been perpetrated upon the citizens of Birmingham. po- | liceman shot at negro two or three times Tuesday night on the block be- | tween Third avenue and Twentieth street l and Nineteenth street and Third avenue. | Has a policeman the right to shoot in- l discriminatory through the street of Bir- mingham? It matetrs little whether a | man has stolen a sack of peanuts or | whether he has killed thirteen men; | is your wife and your child got to be | subm..ted to this ever lasting menace | of being shot down upon the streets by | an excited policeman?
 | N ~ A !