The Alaska citizen., 1911-02-06
LONDON UNARMED
 POLICE
THEY DO NOT CARRY PICTOlS ALTHOUGH ALIEN GRIM
 iNAlS DO.

LONDON. Dec. 21. - Last Friday night London policeman, suspect ing that something was wrong in small HOunds-ditch house which backed on a large jewelry store, went for help. In d few moments he had collected four other police men. two of them p'linclothes men. In answer to their knock the door
 was opened and the policemen, who were armed only with IS inch trun cheons. were received with a fusil- | lade from automatic revolvers. One fell dead on the spot, two died short ly afterward and two others were badly wounded. One of those killed was wounded by eight bullets. The murderers, four men and a woman,
 got away. All four were Russian aliens.
 Last year two armed men in broad daylight attempted to seize bag of gold outside a Tottenham rubber factory. Rolled in the attempt they rushed off pursued by police and
 civilians, at whom they kept up running revolver fire. In few
 minutes a policeman and boy lay dead on the road.
 Eventually the fugIt'ves boarded a train and compelled the driver with
 a revolver held at his head to drive on After they had left the train, and one of them, having only one cartridge left, was cOrnered and shot himself. The other was brought
 to bay in a cottage, and was eventu- ally shot dead by a policeman with | a rifle brought along by a volunteer. i The desperado was found to be Russian physical force anarchists. Altogether three persons were killed and twentytwo wounded In the pur- suit.
 These two outrages have had the natural result of calling forth a de mand from public an1 press that in ! future the London police should car ry revolvers when on duty, especially
 in parts of London known to be the
 resort to dangerous foreign crimi-
 nals They have also caused an i agitation for a more stringent appli- cation of the foreign immigrant reg
 ulations, which at present are prac-
 tically dead letter.
 1 The English criminal very rarely resist arrest with violence. If he | sees a fair chance of getting away by doing so he may use his hands and | feet, or perhaps a stick or a jimmy. 1 But he seldom carries CT uses a gun ] More often than not he goes away 1 quietly with his captOrs. But the l foreign criminal, it Is pointed out,
 carries revolver, knows how to use | it and does use it.
 i In Paris every policeman, except those engaged in regulating traffic,
 carries a loaded revolver and a
 sabre. Every member of the Berlin
 force carries a sword and an auto
 matic pistol. In the west end of Berlin they do not as rule wear
 their revolvers in the day, but always at night, and the sword is never l discarded.
 1 In St. Petersburg the police carry
 mauser automatic pistols in wooden
 cases, which can be converted into stocks, making the pistol repeating
 rifle. The police in Vienna carry re-
 volvers and sabres, in New York
 they carry revolvers, and in Rome
 reVolvers and sword bayonets. It is nevertheless unlikely that
 the London police will be armed i "itI ulis tllillS Dcyollu tucll 10 HUI truncheons, carried in the coat tail pocket and seldom used. The view generally held by the chiefs of the 1 police forces in this country is that
 it would be undesirable to serve out
 revolvers or any other arms to the 1 forces as whole.
 One chief officer explains that some revolvers are kept at most po ! lice stations, and if a constable is sent to arrest man known to be dangerous he may If he likes to ap- ply for one, and has had revolver practice, go armed to his job. This regulation is of no help in a sudden emergency; but as another high
 official explained, That is a risk | man must take if he joins the | force."
 The same official pointed out that it might be dangerous to the public i if the police carried revolvers, that in any case the men would have to be instructed and have practice in the use of the weapon - the argu-
 ment apparently being that this
 would cost too much time and money and that the occasions on which
 revolver was necessary werc very few.
 It must be added that the police | themselves as a who do not favor
 the carrying of revolvers by the whole force. At most some of them advocate the arming of few
 of the older and most experienced
 men who have been trained In the
 use of firearms.
 Beware of good intentions that