Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-12
London Police Failure
in Handling Crowds
Special Correspondence Of The star

LONDON. March = 1910.
r F there is one thing that Iondoners ara
fonder Of hra gging about than
other, il is the way in which their po-
lice handle crowds. You can't talk to
F,nglishman on the occasion Of great
public demonstration for five minutes
without hearing from him panegyric
on the qualities OF his '.oobbies' and hay
ing him compare them-to their advan
tage-with the police Of New York. Ber-
lin. Paris and other capitals.
Now, there is no doubt that the London
policeman is a good-natured person, and.
the average London crowd is composed
of units who respecters of authority
as eXemplified by the man in uniform he
usually manages to get along very well.
and doubt he would do much better Il
there were somebody at the head of af-
fairs who had some idea of disposing his
forces in an effective manner. As il is.
however ii is only the fact that the Eng
lish crowd is good-natured and orderly
by instinct that prevents a great calamity
on some occasion when a multitude is
semoled on the streets.
The writer was viewing the royal pro-
cession from Buckingham Palace the
Palace of Westminster on the occasion OF
Now. every good Londoner and every Wis
itor i'll London wants to see the king and
queen going in state 10 their parliament
and. indeed. the gorgeous medieval pro
cession is well worth se6ing The result
is that a good many thousand people col
lect in Whitehall. which is the best place
for seeing the procession. and in any one
horse American town the first care Of the
chief of police would be the comfort and
safety of the crowd.
In 7 no
the last thing thought of. The writer ar
rived at the top of Whitehall about
nour before the procession was due, and
found a great crowd pouring down TO
take up its position where the procession
could be seen Almost from the top of
Whitehall a line OF soldiers and police
stretched along the edge of the pavement.
and line was drawn across the street
at the top to keep both vehicular and foot
traffic out OF the street. The result was
that the sidewalks. or ''pavements.
they are called here, We're the only avail
able passage.
New, in properly regulated town, the
crowd would have been allowed stand
three or four feet deep along the edge
and look over the shoulders of the sol
diers. but here no attempt made u
keep any kind of order. The crowd was
allowed TO stream down the sidewalk III
any fashion ii pleased, long il did
not break through the line of guards into
the street. Half way down Whitehall, op-
posite where the royal procession turns in
from the Horse Guards parade. even the
sidewalks We're cnt off by the line of
guards. and the result was that the crowd
streaming down impinged against this
barrier and piled up behind ii.
What happened can easily be imagined
Behind We're thousands of people press
ing forward. while in front was the inn
passable line of police and soldiers.
Women and children formed fully half
of the crowd. and they We're unable 10
struggle against the crush. Soon even
the movement stopped and the people
We're wedged in solid mass unable To
move one way or the other.
Some one raised shout and couple
of policemen and ambulance corps men
forced their way in from the empty street
and dragged him out. ON the way the
writer sa W two women dragged out. who
had also been overcome by the crush
and cared for. and heard the waiting OF
dozens of children who We're in serious
danger \ policeman was asked who was
responsible for this mismana cement
Lord bless YOU. sir. he replied. this
always happens when We have big do
in London. People viii crowd up SO, you
know.
duty of the police to prevent them from
--crowding up so" although he admitted
that would be easy enough TO do. But
we have no orders" was his explanation
of why they didn't do it.
The blue-coated guardian estimated
that the ambulance men would be called
on to attend to fully 100 persons in
crowd like that. and he declared that
probably half dozen might be more or
less seriously hurt. one would think
that the newspapers would make row
about such a casualty list and demand
reform of the police arrangements. but
they never do Ii is bad form to
fer to any "regrettable incidents" at a
function with which royalty is concern
ed so. if they do occur they never are
mentioned.
And the Londoner goes on declaring
that his police are the best in the world.