The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1912-11-05
USE CHRISTIAN PLAN
NOT FORCE TO RULE

| DENVER, Nov. 5.-Take away the
|policeman's club.
Prevent him from using a revolver
unless his own life is in peril
Keep fat men off the police force.
Apply plain Christian teachings to
police problems.
These constitute the platform of
George Creel, newspaper writer and
police commissioner of Denver, who
has instituted campaign to prove
his contention that clubs aid revolv-
ers are not necessary to the enforce
ment of the law.
The first step in the commissioners
campaign has been the enforcement
of an order abo1ishing the carrying
of clubs by policemen. His second is
contained in the following order:
ANY officer who beats or otherwise
ma treats prisoner must be prepared
to show justification of absolute de-
Tense under the penalty Of discharge
and future prosecution under the state
law.
ANY officer who discharges a revol-
yer at one whose crime is not known
or in case where the known crime is
less than a serious felony or in the
event his own life is not in peril, will
he dismissed from the force"
To back up thess orders Creel has
accomplished the S lnmary dismissal
of Sergeant DoOley and Patrolman
Joessel, who recently shot and wound
ed an alleged 'masher" named Fike.
The latter shot Fike as he was running
away in fright, and the former beat the
man as he lay PROSTATE on the ground |
81 am taking away clubs because
they invite brutality and are of no
real use," said Crsel today. "In case of
assault the officer does not rely on
his club, but upon his revolver. I have
always believed also that the police
should not carry revolvers, but I am
loathe to eliminate them until we get
an effective law against gun selling
and gun-toting.
'As it is now, every pawnshop and |
hardware store finds profit in the
sale of revolvers. dirks and black
jacks and because of this profit these
men killed bill in the last Colorado
legislature that would have done away
with the evil and lifted from the city
the menace of frontier lawlessness.
81 mean to stop this thing of police
brutality and reckless shooting if ]
have to discharge every man ON the
force. I shall proceed to a reorgani-
cation of the Denver force that will
result in the dismissal of the brutal
the stupid, the crooked and the inef- :
ficient.
THE reason so many fugitives are
fired at is because the officers are too
fat to give chase. The reason so many
officers beat prisoners generally is
because they were appointed for polit-
cal reasons and have developed the
sense. The reason they
rotect gamblers and macquereaux and
awbreakers generally is because they
ire accustomed to frank partnership
With vice ard crime. =
1.-THE very papers which are now
exploiting police brutality were loud in ~
heir attacks upon me for 'maudlin
entimentality' They could not con-
ain their disgust as my attempt to
pply plain Christian teachings to po-
ice problems"
Commissioner Creel also refused re- :
emily to issue an order forbidding
he Industrial Workers of the World y
rom speaking in the public streets
lie asserted that such action would
onstitute infringement of the right of -
rec speech, and that he did not care
hat the speakers said so long as they =
emained within the bounds and did
OF violate the police regulations or =.
reate disorder. The commissioner -
eclared that he did not propose to ~
ave a repetition in Denver of what
e said was the shameless brutality"
lat had characterized the treatment of
lie l. w. W. speakers in San Diego. %
" We