The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-02
BINGHAM REMOVED FROM HIS OFFICE Mayor Mcclellan Hits Police
 Department Hard ALL ON ACCOUNT OF A BOY Brooklyn Boy Had Been Arrested and Discharged But His Photograph
 Had Been Placed in the
 Rogues' Gallery.
ALL ON ACCOUNT OF A BOY

| New York, July Lone of the most / drastic upheavals in New York city po- | lice history occurred today when Mayor Mcclellan summarily removed Commis
 sioner Theodore A. Bingham for insubor- dination after the latters refusal to com ply with certain revolutionary orders is- sued by the mayor yesterday. The mayors order came at the conclusion of his investigation into the alleged perse- cution by the police of George B. Duffy, an inconspicuous and almost friendless Brooklyn lad who, it was averred, was repeatedly arrested without just cause, l and whose photograph was retained in the rogues' gallery despite the failure of the police to obtain conviction against him. The mayor stated that at least two of General Bngham's lieutenants were guilty of misconduct in this affair and &C., cordihgly he demanded their removal.
 With General Bingham's retirement to- day went several of his closest advisers and the leading supporters of his regime. As the head of the new regime, the mayor appointed William F. Baker, hith erto deputy commissioner who indicated that a considerable change in the policy of the department was to be expected
 "The law will hereafter be enforced" he declared, with regard to the fact that New York Is a cosmopolitan city with cosmopolitan population"
 Reasons for Removal.
 General Bingham and his friends were tonight outspoken in their declaration that the principal reasons for the mayors act were political, and that the commis- sioner's independence of the politicians had resulted in his removal only few months before the important municipal elections of the autumn. In statement tonight the deposed commissioner said:
 q leave the office with very little re- gret It is a fatiguing task, and this is what 1t leads to.
 Politics has brought about this change I have done the best I could to give the city a clean and honest police administra- ton, free from any tinge of any party politics. But with the approach of an election the bosses said it would never do to have a police commissioner who gave square deal all around.
 There are many things in the adminis- tration of New Yorks police system which should be changed. l was changing them as fast as possible-too fast, l guess, from the outcome.
 Above all, I have tried to keep the police department free from political con trol. and 1t is safe to say that as re- suit have been the most unpopular com missioner among the politicians that New York has ever had"
 Statement Given Out.
 The head of the Citizens union gave out statement in which he said: We are with General Bingham because we know he has not handled the police force in the interest of any politics or party. In view of the vital importance of a fair election and an honest count this fall we had hoped that he would continue in office.'
 General Bingham, who is graduate of West Point, came to the New York police department shortly after he had retired from the United States army with the rank of brigadier general. He had oc- cupied the post of superintendent of pub lie grounds and buildings at Washington, but when President Roosevelt succeeded Mckinley frequent differences of opinion between the two resulted in General Bingham's removal to an army post in Buffalo, where the loss of a leg in the 1 performance of his duty resulted in his retirement.
 His appointment as police commissioner was Mayor McClellans declaration of in- dependence of Tammany Hall and of op- | position to political control of the police General Bingham's last important off 1 cial act was his acceptance of the resig- nations of his secretary, Daniel G. Slat- | tery, and of his deputy commissioners. | Bert Hansen, F. Bugher and Arthur l Woods. He had previously declined to oust Slattery and Hansen, whose removal the mayor demanded, and it was prin- | cipally upon this point that the split