Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-09-05
POLICE AS SOLDIERS.
ASSISTANCE TO GROWING POW
Err OF VICIOUS CLASSES.
Points Suggested by Recent Alleged
Revelation of Corruption in New
York Police Department.

lice department anu SOclety lOT tut
Prevention of Crime, more familiarly
known as the Parkhurst society has
coached the second critical stage to be
noted since the beginning of the strug'
ole the first one being the shake-uI
In public sentiment that preceded the
Reform Administration of Mayor
strong. This time, it is claimed. the
society has trapped the police depart
nent and has directly connected II
with the protection OF pool rooms
Gambling houses, policy shops and 9th
er illegal resorts.
Whatever may be the Interior aims
of the present reform movement, What
are the merits of the case on the evil
dance alleged to have been secured with
these we have nothing to do, Neither
is if any part of our business to notice
what if any, politics there may be in
the present sensation caused by the
tran. into which, it is alleged, the whole
poice department has been gathered
in the alleged role of High Protector
of Vice and Crime in the metropolis.
These upheavals come and go in every
large city, and even in smaller cities
and towns in all parts of the Union.
There is. however. a great deal to be
studied and learned-with "A view to
remedial legislation-in the intimate
relations that subsist between the po-
lice and the unruly classes everywhere.
The present occasion-when New
York is really somewhat shaken by the
springing Of the alleged trap-is favor
able for the presentation of few very
vital facts, that no ono at all CONVEX
SAINT with city life can dispute
Il have lived in New York, man and
hoy. all my life, said a gray haired
retired business man, and the more
| study the pracucal government of the
city, the more | am convinced that VIC
are simply heedless-and in no partic-
plar details more so than in the or
ganizaton of our police force and in
the regulation of that large body of
citizens who break the law right along.
Everybody knows that our police
force come into contact officially, with
the criminal and vicious classes. Pa
trolmen roundsmen, wardmen, ser
geants. captains, inspectors. the Cen
trail Office, the Detective bureau-offi-
GERS high and low, good and bad,
s'raight and corrupt-all are daily in
communication with all classes of law
breakers, from the Wall Street crook
broker and promoter to the unfortu-
nate who solicits on the streets and
the cellar coal dealer" or Junk
man who harbors thieves, thugs. bull
hes and worse. belonging to the hui
man ilotsam and jetsam. | suppose few
Of ms reflect that daily and hourly
contact, and personal acquaintance
with these microbes of disorder, is
likely to develop some of the latent
crOOkcdness of police officer, latent
crooktdness that few people are free
from
Not only is the police force. head
and members, constantly thrown
among these communicating influences,
but the department is officially called
upon, in specified cases, to accept a
modus vivendi with individuals known
10 be crooked. They are on certain
beat and the patrolman must make the
best of them. You can not round up
half the denizens of dozen crowded
tenements-no matter what we may
think. such a course is impracticable
in the every day life of a great city.
W Z must ItilltlllDtl tlldL Niit II VI :
ganiZed in the metropolis Crime is
not and never will be. But the horrid
harmony subsisting between the vari-
GUS branches of the nefarious traffic
that feeds on the souls of the destroyed,
is so marked that every thinking man
is alarmed at times for the future of
the nation. This organized menace
seems to demand police more military
and centralized than the popular force
Of patrOlmen that has come to be a
part of our governmental system. OF
itself and by virtue of the very ma
'ure of evil. this organization and So
ildarity of yiciousness will grow worse
from year to year. but If the popular
police, in places, become a part of the
evil system who can tell what it may
lead to?
II is either one thing or the other:
~ foul places are not cleaned up, en-
iorComent Of the law by arrest and
punishment is simply waste of energy.
The individual here and there brought
10 book is not what is demanded the
conditions must he assailed first last
aaa all tho time have no sympathy
with thC theory of necessary evil. legal
t't~ '.f'A SUI Ntllltiitt VI
'r example,; the point is that the law
E1-t become terror to all law-break-
"T3 We have really no time TO bother
"|.l Ca&iHg the world better. The
nas". simple process is to arrest and
r4r..h The guilty. Keep this up. If the
@"1.I ices not grow better, the police
1917. - least have done their duty.
.%o%. Is it likely that popular po-
lrg force in close touch with the peo-
N." VII al all times do their duty un-
.l- 1,"Sly in the face of a local pub
N0 -e"t,mcnt decidedly hostile at times
." given beat, that does not favor
Severe measures in certain cases? Is
net fact that the very nearness to
N. people cultivated nv the patrolman
nasman is nothing short Of a
motive and temptation to neglect their
..iJ. You will notice | ain saying
mounting here about police corruption.
Gwen N all the members OF the depart
".hi We're honest and straight. the
.. am speaking OF would still call
% Roasting Of the present system
-. The department out Of politics
lang been the cry OF reformer5
.aha the police force away good
!Flther from the people than they
new Militarize them more Take