The San Francisco call., 1905-02-11
POLICE RAIDS
Are ILLEGAL
Judge Hebbard Decides That
Resorts Cannot Be En-
tered Without a Warrant
ENLARGES INJUNCTION
Restraints Authorities From
Blockading Entrance to
Dive on jackson Street
ENLARGES INJUNCTION


Not only has Judge Hebbard declined |
to dissolve the restraining orders which !
prevent the police, shrievalty and |
Grand Jury from raiding the notorious !
resorts at $40 Jackson street and in |
Belden place, but he has enlarged the |!
Injunction to include a prohibition of |
the police from blockadipg the entrance
to Ravanis cigar store and the side
walk in front thereof, from molesting i
his customers by threats of arrest and
from arresting persons entering or
leaving the place, unless armed with a
warrant of law. As Ravani's store is
in the entrance to the Jackson-street
resort, the inmates, though judicially
declared immoral, are immune from po-
lice interference unless caught in the
act of violating the ordinance govern !
ing their crime, or unless the Dluecoats
present the proper order for arrest.
Judge Hebbard's decision is handed
down in written opinion covering
nineteen typewriter pages and 1t dis
poses temporarily of the cases of Ra-
vani, the cigar-store keeper, who COM
planned that the police were running
his business at $40 Jackson; of Edward.
Moran, who complained that, as a
lodger at the number named, he was
driven from his home by the police
sledge-hammer raids, and of Elysa
Malenoire and seven others who COM,
planned that in the crusade against
vice, the authorities fnfringed upon
their property rights as licensed lodg-
ing house keepers in Belden place. The
court Overruled the demurrers. to the
complaints, denied the motions of the
District Attorney to dissolve the in
functions, enlarged the injunction in
Ravani's case, as pleaded for by Hen
ry Ach, and gave the defendants-the
Chief of Police, Mayor, District Attor
ney, Sheriff and Grand Jury-ten days
in which to answer.
During the hearing the court found,
and reiterates in the opinion, that the
houses named in the complaints are
used for immoral purposes. Two ques-
tions of law remained: First, as to the
jurisdiction of a court of equity to in
terfere in such cases; second, as to the
right Of policemen or o~ivate citizens to
attempt to make arrests for misde-
meanors not committed within their
view, and without writ or warrant.
Says the opinion: The determines
tion of these issues by the court is
warranted by. abundant citations from
adjudfcated cases in many States of
the Union and by text book authority,
as well as by decisions of this court"
QUOTES OTHER OPINIONS.
Then the opinion proceeds to cite
"the abundant authorities" and to
quote at least three important decisions
in full. First of the latter is Judge
Murasky's opinion in the case where
the police, without warrant, entered the
track of the Pacific Coast Jockey Club
to make arrests for pool selling and
bookmaking and the court held that the
authorities should be enjoined, and that
a court of equity had jurisdiction in
such cases. Next was the opinion of
Judge Seawell in the case of Marie
Paris wherein, for the same reasons,
the police were enjoined from blockad-
ing Bacon place and interfering with
the business of restaurant and
boarding house" on that street by
! threatening the persons who passed
through it with arrest.
The third opinion quoted was that of
Judge Gaynor of the New York Su-
preme Court wherein there is an ethical
/ analysis of police activity in cases of
this kind. Culed from the Gaynor
opinion are the following paragraphs
which Judge Hebbard thought worth
giving in full:
If the officers stationed at the PLAINTIFF 5
place were put to patrolng the street and ar
resting all such women there would very soon
be no soliciting there 1t cannot exist except /
by sufferance of the police. And If the de- |
fendant has evidence as he claims that the |
course prescribed him by law is to cause |
the PLAINTIFF arrest and conviction. One such |
conviction would be more wholesome and do |
more to prevent such offenses than any amount |
Of unlawful violence
1t may be that the plaintiff is breaking the !
law. but the law does not> confer arbitrary |
power the defendant to deal with him. The |
defendant is not official of unlimited powers. |
We have no such officials in this country. No |
police Official be suffered to take the law |
into his hands. When he does he be- |
comes the most dangerous of criminals. He |
cannot decide any to be guilty and proceed /
this case.
All good citizens want to see outward order |
and decency enforced, and will support the po-
lice III doing 1t in the efficient manner which |
inevitable result of extortion and blackmail |
which comes from police officials being suffered !
to go beyond their powers. That jealous |
persons to whom the word vice has only one
meaning do not see this is much to be regret |
ted They seem to be altogether unconscious
that by encouraging police officials to resort to |
lawless force they themselves aiding and |
abetting far greater and more dangerous |
suppress
Police officials as much bound to obey
the law are other people. The notion that
the police may violate and trample on the
law regulating their conduct, In their efforts
or under pretense of efforts to make other
people obey the law regulating theirs, II the
most dangerous and pernicious that en-
tered into the heads of men, II the conduct Of
come general. then free government would
be overthrown and despotisu would have taken
it's place. Officials should not be permitted to
forget that our government, like all free gov
ernments, Is government OF laws and not OF
men, The people do not put persons in office
to do they please, but to keep safely within
the laws enacted for their guidance and for
the Limitation OF their powers. Experience has
cynurv, fro1r, he heg u "a rr1nr