The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-06
Wholesale Punishment


 If the pqoe % % are prepared to show d that and that the DEFECTIVE BUREAU is UNNECEs- SARY well and good
 either service be sustained in the forum of reason
 But the commissioners make no such claim They believe NECESSARY to have force of special police They believe that Bridgeport NEEDS detective bureau
 There be doubt upon this point, because the ordinances provide soon the existing force of specials abolished the commissioner shall create AN OTHER FORGE and it is provided that as soon as the existing detective bureau is abolished ANOTHER shall
 What arguments may conceivably be raised to sup port the abolition of either branch of the police service and immediate replacement by the commissioners?
 The proof of necessity must consist in showing that special adapted to the work it does and that the detectives failure in their work
 But if this is alleged extenuaton of the remark able demands of the police they ought 10 willing to show in what the rules of the depart fail to provide remedy:
 special force failure it is because the lnd1 viduals composing not do their duty If these dividuas do not do what they ought to do 1t IS the ual The is true of the members of the detective bureau.
 The detective bureau administered by Supt Eugene Birmingham Under him, in immediate charge, is Capt George H. Arnold; and under Arnold are a number ot detective sergeants, who picked and eclent men 1T any of them not they should be brought to trial and punished in suitable way, or removed, for CAUSE
 But the commissioners, so far have made claim that the personnel of either branch is defective.
 And if they did claim that some specials, or some detectives delinquent incompetent how does that justify wholesale punishment directed at special It is true that when Mr. Roosevelt president he degraded the whole of regiment for an offense
 
 This action generally condemned. It was not in with the American theory of justice to ish many for the fault of few z5s=e~
 There was however some justification for MT. Roose- velt's course. He informed the of the degraded regiment charged against members of it. and demanded the production of the cprls The reg refused to the guilty and he punished the whole strictly for the original ofense but for recall crance in refusing to disclose those who actually deserv ed the punishment.
 The police commissioners want to further. They ask the Common Council to degrade EVERY special off Rridgeport WITHOUT ANY CHARGE OF MISCON- DUCT LEVIED AGAINST ANYBODY, and for no req son that has been made known to the public.
 Among serni-savage peoples it remains, in parts of the world custom to hold the tribe guilty for the of But nowhere, that know of, did there exist legal principle under which punished whole sale without charge whatever being made against
 It will scarcely be denied that it is punishment to special policeman who has worn his badge for many years and performed his duties faithfully and who has by of his service certain chance for ultimate promotion the regular force to strip his office from him. The degradation is apparent in the case of the detective sergeants.
 We prefer to believe a matter of justice to them, the police commissioners do not really understand quality of the they ask the Common Council to adopt.
 search their minds that they have done something because they asked to do it. and without much reflection the of their acton much consideration of the injustice that would be done if their wishes acquesced in
 But since intelligent men seldom take important ac- ton without motive, it must be supposed that there is motive behind the police ordinances What probably is that motive?
 the desire Mayor Wilson and his sponsors to build powerful political machine? Would it not add to the power of political machine, if, with municipal election close at hand, the mayor could hundred special pOhce and 5O regular police and five six members of detective bureau, and 25 perior officers of police all welded into force absolutely dominated by the police commission capable of being compactly operated a political instrument9
 All the facts in sight lend themselves to this struction.