The National tribune., 1907-08-15
NEW YoRk,s 4cRIME wayE.r

| NEW fORk'S "CRIME WAVE"
! New York Is paying the penalty of
unrestricted immigration, and the re-
markable Carnival of Crime" is at
tracing attention all over the world.
The yellow papers are in positive hys-
terics over it, and have long ago eX-
hausted all their possibilities in the way
of poster type and biood-red headlines.
Blackmail, murder, burglary, atrocious
assaults upon women and children have
had a frequency unprecedented in the
criminal history of this country. The
police, as well as the municipal authori-
ties, seem to be at their wits end how
to deal with the awful outbreak. The
| reason is not far to seek. The admin
| istration of justice is greatly improv-
| ing in Italy and other countries. and the
| criminals there who have found the
climate becoming too warm for them.
have sought refuge in New York. The
Armenians. Syrians, Greeks and other
Levantine people have been coming to
this country in great numbers. and are
profiting much by the opportunities for
making money which they have found
here. This has induced the criminals
who have been preying upon them in
their own land to follow them. Where
these criminals had thought themselves
fortunate in squeezing" some unfor-
tunate Armenian or Syrian out of a few
dollars in their own land, they could
get several hundred dollars from him
quite as easily in this country. The
banditti. the robbers. the blackmailers.
of Asia Minor, come here. therefore,
as naturally as the parasites follow the
animals that we import into this coun-
try Their strangeness has made it
difficult at first to deal with them. pre-
cisely as for a while we were at loss
how to deal with the potato bugs ana
the San Jose scale on their first ap-
pearance 1t looks, however. as if this
inability will not continue long. since
the police are getting as wise to the
methods of these foreign criminals as
they have been to those of our own.
The way that the Black Hand terrorists
and the Armenian blackmailers are be-
ing handled shows that the foreign vii
lains will find in the end that American
police methods are more searching. un-
evadable and effective than those from
which they have fled, and that the
course of justice in this country is even
more certain and dangerous than in
those whence they came. There is fear.
however, that the maddened people of
New York may take justice in their
own hands at some time, as decisively
and effectively as the people of New
Orleans did a few years ago. 1t will be
remembered that the Mafia leaders be-
came so bold as to shoot down from
ambush the Chief of Police and some of
his officers. The guilty men were ar
rested and put in Jail. but it was feared
that they would terrorize the jury. and
the people of New Orleans attacked the
Jail and killed every man in it. This
cost it nice little indemnity to Italy.
but TIE lesson was worth all that 1t
cost, and the Malta leaders became
much more tractable.
The main trouble in New York, as it
was in New Orleans, is to get the vic
tins of the blackmailing, numbering
scoundrels to testify against them. The
Italians, Armenians and others have
been so long under the thumb of these
rascais that they fear to make COM
plant against them. In their own
countries, the officials have been too
often very inefficient, or accomplices
of the rascals, and would not give pro-
lection to their victims. There is a
gratifying disposition on the part of the
Italians and Armenians in New York
to trust the police and aid in bringing
the villains to justice. This will help
greatly to stay the crime wave and
bring about much better order of
things.