The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-29
CALLS POLICE BRlBE TAKERS
MAGISTRAS$WHITMAN TALkSO N
POLICE COURT EVILS.

Excise Law NiolatOTs and ProfesslOna
Bondsmen -Needo OF Night POhoe Court
Magistrate Charles S. Whitman, presi
dent Of the Board of Magistrates for Man
haitian and The Bronx, spoke TO the member
Of the Lawyers Club of Brooklyn lust nigh
at the University Club in that borough OF
THE Enforcement Of Law" and devotec
the chief parts Of his speech to defining
his attitude on enforcing the excise Law
and explaining the necessity for a nigh
police court in Manhattan.
Magistrate Whitman said that he agreed
with Bishop Potter, who said in an address
the other night that there was too much
law already and too little enforcement oi
law. He added:
For one | should be willing. il il were
possible to have it done. that the present
Legislature. after il has accomplished it's
present purposes and has lone it's full
duty. as outlined by the fearless man who
occupies the Governors chair at Albany,
should adjourn for two yeArs- and even
longer. We have an abundance Of law now
and vastly too little enforcement Of it.
1T has been said that il was impossible
TO enforce the excise law. for example.
II has been said that no police official,
no Magistrate and no president of the
Boprd of Magistrates could enforce the
excise. law. That statement | declHre
absolutely false. Personally. il l had the
power I would close every saloon in the
United States. and ! am not a crank or a
fanatic ON the liquor question. | drink
myself. whenever | care to. and probably
shall continue TO do so.
Il am willing that every other man shall
ave tine same rights that | have. But
when you sit on the bench that l sit on and
zee 10 per cent. Of The eases that cone from
you, and see the-misery, distFessand crime,
all due to liquor selling, / say any man
with red blood in his veins is likely to feel
that the world would be infinitely. better
on IL the liqnor. saloons could be crushed.
out, cost what it may. | believe it is the
most abominable, the most outrageous
and the most nhuman influence in. New
York ~oitysto-day.
Now the law says you cannot sell liquor
from I A. NJ. to 5 A. NJ. I'm not a Carrie
Notion nor a Francis Murphy, whose badges
wi, used to wear-not the Murphy whose
collar some of our friends wear-but /
am willing to leave ii TO you to judge Of the
state Of affairs when recently l ordered a
policeman to make an arrest where a fla
grant violation of the excise laww was going
on before his very eyes, and he said to me
that he didn't care TO make the arrest. That
officer had sworn before Almighty God TO
enforce the law and didn't dare do il. |
know why he didn't dare, and so-do you.
and so do all intelligent citizens. believe
that If law cannot be enforced it should be
repealed.
that liquor should be sold in saloons at all
hours of the night. 1t is being sold now.
be right TO sell it to 5 A. Nj. and from 8 A. NJ.
to 8 A. NJ. At present there are four hours
when it may be sold ilicitly, providing,
and l use the %vernacular, you're in right.
L - l-w 5000 LW H. -. -
begins; THE people Of the State of New
York in the Senate and Assembly assembled
do enact &c. TIT police inspectors and
captains amend that declaration by say
ing: The inspectors and captains do
State of New York; IL you're In right"
Magistrate Whitman told of being COM
PEELED to fine a Jew IS for selling two pounds
Of beef on Sunday up in Harlem. h
prisoner protested and said a saloon was
running wide open on the other corner and
all be had done was to appease hunger.
The Magistrate exclaimed:
What is there so holy. SO righteous about
rum selling, what is there so noble. so
inspiring about it that it must be projected?
II you see'the inspector and captain you
can sell all you want.
But if it is right to sell liquor. / submit
that it is:right oeell beef, and it should not
that you and I know prevail. l am not
fighting the liquor traffic in New. York.
] am fighting the protection Of liquor deal
era by the police for money. II the liquor
dealers may. sell. then ] submit that the
delicatessen man. the butcher and the grocer
shall also have the same right and to do so
without paying the police for permission
Judge Whitman then spoke OF the pas
sage OF the night police court bill by the
Was necessary. He said that several
eminent men had declared for it because
Magistrate Whitman wanted it. He as
eerted That that was. not a good reason.
He added.
have been in other countries and other
cities and | want to say ] believe New York
city is the best, the noblest and grandest
city ON earth. Yet. right here in New York
there has been developed in the last twenty
years the vilest practice words fail to
describe lbs charscter-on the face of the
earth. II is the professional bondsmen
evil, nj it is not paralleled in any other
city in the world. The professional bonds
man is the vllsst specimen OF the genus homo
that God, ever made.
Then the Magistrate told how fake ar
rests were made of prostitutes not because
they Are. prostitutes but because the
woman has IS in her pocket, which can
be wrung from her for the benefit Of the
professional hondsnan and the police,
who divide the spoils." He said the police !
man whO4Nde the arrest got 81. the sergeant
got " -anAS the bondsman s.. He: aaid
that seemed a small amount, but when
sixty-twe arrests we're made, as they were
the other night in the Tenderloiu under
Capt. MeClusky, H. meant IA tidy sam 10 !
be divided. He said:
The next morning the woman knows |
she will be discharged, because no case will
be made against her and she viii 60 out on |
the streets only to repeat her unhappy e1-
rerience. The bondsman will go home
Grinning and leeriug, the police will rejoice
end the Magistrate will go home from his
work with a sad heart wondering il there
lie any way to stop this evil and whether
il 10 worth while to do his duty. The pro-
fessional bopdsman is at this very moment
standing in the station houses doing his
terrible work. We want to put these grin
ming. leerinR creatures out OF business and
God grant it will be for all time"
Magistrate Whitman then read certified
records OF half a dozen cases that had coTae
before him. He said he had a collection
Of 600 OF them. In every case the. police
man swore that the woman he arrested was
a prostiTite and then on the stand had
sworn that he had no case against her.
He mentioned IS CAGES that came before
him in one day.and in 40 OF these the woman.
q paid s. TO q professional bonden.an
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