The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-03
NEW YORK LIKE
 FRONTIER TOWN E. >r,s
 .. Reckless Lawlessness No
 Longer a Joke OPINION OF .DEVERY
Former Chief of New York Police Tells What He Thinks Is Wrong With the Police Force.
 Arizona Surprise
ny CHARLES B. CARTER

ny CHARLES B. CARTER
 New York March 2.-(Special 1-The
 charge that New York can give pointers
 to the widest of frontier towns in reclS-
 less lawlessness, has passed beyond the province of a joke.
 The marked train zholdups of the west have been feeble efforts compared to the
 New York automobile robberies which
 have amazed and startled the commit
 nifty recently. In recklessness of con
 ception and bodness of execution the
 James and younger boys had nothing on
 our metropolitan outlaws.
 New Workers have more than once sighed for the good old police days of B. Murray and Byrnes and McCullagh
 and Devery when there was a dead line and while the police perhaps grafted
 more than they do now. they put the fear of the law into the hearts of the thug, the gun man and the holdup, and
 the ordinary citizens and property were 1 fairly safe as he went about his ordinary | avocation. A
 | l am inclined to believe that much of
 the trouble is due to the fact that we put men who are not policemen at the
 head of our police force.
 Former Chief of Police Devery in speaking of the epidemic of daring high ! way robberies which have dazed the | New York police force and he Is more than half right:
 Iris not the fault of the rank and l file of men. I've never had that to say about them. They are a fine lot. But until the police force of New York city | has man at it's head who has worked his way up through the ranks we will have to put up with these outrages. No | man that does not know his rat holes, and the rats that he has in them, can know how to clean them out Do you | get me-"
 It was suggested that the authorities | thought the holdups were the work of a gang of western crooks.
 They think" said Mir Devery, they | think What right has a police force | to think about a thing like that? I'm telling you they should know! Do you get me? H1
 "The police of this city ought to know every crook when he lands here. They | ought to know where every crook goes. ! They should be able to say how every crook spends his evenings and where every crook was last night. See? And bit l of advice on the end of a nightstick is very good for birds of that feather GO into your rat holes in New York
 with a nightsticlS and clean 'em out. It's better than broom. And there are rats that remember a good poke over the head.
 Do you think the police have been | run by a dancing master? The men are | fine men but their head has got to get
 on the job and be a man if he wants
 to clean up New York. tt Listen to me, 'tis against human na-
 ture for man who has not worked
 himself up through the ranks to be
 able to run thiskpolice force. Notthat 1 It's his fault Tfe greatest general of
 the greatest army In the world could
 not do it. 4A
 Iris not the executive ability and | tactics that are needed. It's knowledge | of New York; of every blind alley and crooked lane In it., The head of the police 1 force should be able to say to his men; | In a irookery on the water front lives | Dick Dead-Eye. I know him we'll And l when he meets Dick Dead-Eye he should be able to say: My friend, I know where you were last night. I'm on to you For four years there wasn't z, safe | blown nor a head cracked In New York | worth mentioning. What was done be- | fore can be done again. Watch 'em when | they land; that's the place. Don't let l em in at all unless you know where
 they are going. And go over their | haunts with a fine comb in one hand and a stick in the other.
 "And listen to me: There's plenty of | law: the laws are all right. And there's 8 plenty of policemen; the police are all | right.
 "The law Is good enough if 'tis used 1 properly And the men of the police | force are good enough to enforce the
 law if they are used properly, But they
 have to feel their head Is behind them; ready to stand by them.
 | ''You can't expect them to keep their nerve if they don't know what minute | they are going to be blamed for doing what they think Is right. You cant run | the police force the way you can any other body of men. You can't tell them
 to obey your orders to the letter. If
 they are good policemen they are dis
 erect as long as they can be. and then they cut loose and put fear of God into | somebody"
 "On the end of nightstiek?' 1t was 1 suggested.
 "You're on.' said MT. Devery. On the
 end of nightstick."
 | "Thc new state of Arizona is going 1 to surprise the world says ]. Lorenzo