The Colorado statesman., 1910-09-03

disorder in the bud. This strange ap-
parent want of appreciation of what
ought to be the first duty of a police
officer is exhibited in many ways.
The real responsibility however, for
the suppression of crime should not
be put upon the inferior officers actu-
ally charged with the making of ar
rests but upon those at the head OF
the police force The action of the
ordinary policeman is governed by the
attitude of his superiors. If properly
instructed, policemen will be prompt
to arrest rioters and turbulent strikers
at the outset of any manifestation of
lawless action. The chiefs of police
should give such instructions. If in
stead of doing so they assume gen.
eral attitude of timid acquiescence and
neglect to interfere in rioting, simply
pursuing the policy of trying to pro-
tect persons threatened by rioters, in
stead of furnishing the rioters them
able by their superiors. Under most
systems of the organization of munich
pal police in this country, the chief OF
police is appointed by the mayor and
may be removed by him. The mayor.
in some instances, may be removed
by the governor, and in substantially
all instances is subject either to such
removal or to indictment for neglect
of duty. The governor, as the supreme
representative of the executive author
ity in the state, has an active response
bility in all such cases, and should be
held to such responsibility by public
opinion. He should make it known
that police officers, sheriffs or mayors
who permit lynchers to gather and
mobs to collect and grow, without in
reference, will be removed and prose-
cuted for violation of their duty. A
few instances of such removals and
prosecutions would put an end to the
present liberation of the police for
mob disorder.
But no action by the police will
amount to anything without the effic-
lent cooperation of police magistrates.
Many judges of the police courts in
American cities are excellent magis-
trates, but in many cities there are
some who are low politicians, whose
appointment is disgrace, and whose
administration of their office is a di-
rect encouragement to the criminal
class. Such police magistrates are
particularly apt to sympathize with
every form of mob violence, and to re
frain from taking any action to re-
strain ID or to punish it. The truth is
that, in a certain sense, the most i'm
portant judicial officers in this coun-
try are the police magistrates, and one
of the worst acts that the mayor of
city can commit is to appoint to such
a position a person who is known TO
him to be grossly unfit to fill 1t. In
stances are not uncommon in our great
cities of the appointment of ward pol
iticians of the lowest character, sa-
loonkeepers, gambling-house proprie-
tors, men whose sympathies are with
that great class in every city which
has business interests connected with
vicious institutions. Police magis-
trates, more than any other judges,
represent to the ordinary people of
our cities the administration of JUS
tice. They can do more by firm and
upright conduct to preserve public Or
der and to instill into the mind of the
community respect for law than any
other class of magistrates, and they
can do more to degrade the admins
traton of justice and to foster tenden-
cies to public disorder and lawless-
ness than any other class of magis-
trates. A mayor who selects to be
magistrate in police court mai
whom he knows to be grossly unfit
for the position ought to be removed
from office by the governor, and
when such a magistrate is put in office