New-York tribune., 1906-11-14
CARNIVALS OF CRIME.

What Is q carnival of crime? We hear about
one somewhere in this country every few
months. Last winter there was a tremendous
carnival of crime in Chicago. couple OF
months ago San Francisco was visited in a
similar way By an outbreak OF lawlessness and
violence. Now 1t is Pittsburg that is recording
fits daily murder and its much more frequent
highway robbery and assault. We have had
our carnivals Of crime in New York. What
does st mean? Is there q concerted action Of
criminals against one community for a brief
and profitable period until the forces of order
expel them? Is it the mere coincidence of an
unusual number Of crimes Of violence on the
part OF the not habitually criminal with the
usual similar acts Of the habitually criminal
combining fortuitously 10 make what seems like
a shocking outbreak of lawlessness? Are some
Of these carnivals of crime merely OF newspaper
making, the eXaggeraton Of the usual crime Of
a great city for some political purpose? Per-
haps each carnival has its own explanation and
any one of these suggestions may be true in
an individual case
When the Chicago carnival of crime was at
its height last winter we intimated our belief
that the newspapers and public of that city
were making the most Of the usual crime there
10 put pressure upon the City Council 10 raise
liquor licenses and thus afford more money to
increase the police force When the Council
took this action the carnival of crime ended like
magic.
1t is always possible that "yeggmen" and
thieves may move concertedly upon city which
is III policed and looks like "easy picking" Sup
pose that coincidentally the police of New York
and those Of Philadelphia or of Chicago should
round up the criminals and drive them out OF
town. as the police often do. 1t is not unlikely
that large number of criminals together might
move upon a city like Pittsburg, and that, ar
irving there, they might make themselves felt
in an unusual outbreak OF robberies, assaults
and murders such is now apparently filling
the people of Pittsburg with terror The CON-
bined cities of Plttsburg and Allegheny have
a population of about half a million, and for
this police force Of four hundred seems made
quate. The municipality appears to have recog-
niZed It's inadequacy, for promptly upon the
visitation the Council voted TO increase the
force TO five hundred. 1t may be that the Grim
inal classes recognized the possibilities that lay
in Pittsburg
1t is the feeling that the city is full Of strange
criminals in unsuspected numbers come bent
on raIding the town. that gives terror TO such
a carnival of crime as Pittsburg reports. But
a discriminating examination Of the crimes
which go TO swell the appalling lists In the
newspapers shows that many Of them are not
the work OF the professional criminal classes.
They are merely the crimes which happen daily
in a great city and which give ordinarily no
cause for general alarm. When drunken hus-
band kills his wife, when two brawlers fight In
the street and one has his head broken, 1t all
goes into an undiscriminating list to swell a
carnival OF crime" But police provision
can guard against such acts OF violence as
these. The police are supposed only to know
the professional crooks" and keep them NOV
ing and so prevent relgns OF terrorism.