Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-07-26

[ IN
CfhU III who is to be not M&Sxs&
~ far off. having in M@sssSsssS ~
SOJ these days little to do MEM%&3#S
NNV except to scrutinize SNE%%a
strangers at railway AlsayWN4$ i
stations and street corners Although IllEs2 -
often frgid and uncommunicatve to NH
natives. the policeman is free enough W\
with strangers. and his Information is INV
apt to be reliable about the country NM
generally, for he is kept WS
long at any one place. his local knowl- oWN%~M
edge is extensive. 1t is true that he. " IN
is apt to be biased against the peas ~ ~
antry, because although Il peasants wv
son himself his training and employ 1N
ment have made the people hate him ~
for the common people have no use - ~
for the "peeler.' the constabuIary \ NV
are contemptuously called by them
Imagine the policemen. the natural protectors
of life and property, being hated by the people,
Ihat is the condition in Ireland yet and has been
SO almost from the beginning. That does not
mean that the Irish do not want to have life and
property protected 1t means that they have so
long seen the policeman identified with the pro
lection OF a particular kind of life. towit: the
landlords and baflns. and a particular kind of
property, towit: the landlords property in land
that they overlook his other useful public serv.
ices. III is d most unfortunate state of things
The policeman has been made the buffer bet ween
the English Government and the Irish people. and
the efficient instrument of coercion of the latter
and between the two his lot has not been n banny
one. When home rule becomes an ACCOMPLISHED
ha
banded I, will no longer be necessary tn La.,
an 'Eng; garrison" in Ireland.
The arrangement between the police and the
people is indeed remarkable. In the lawless dis
trcts OF "hich there still too many the people
who cou'd give Information to the police will mot
do SO. aence. there is good deal of unpublished
crime al those districts. One of the worst conn
ties in this respect is the county OF Glare the
historic constituency that first elected OConneu
to Pefliament. Here the old wounds of the agra
rian war have never closed up. During my stay
j saw in one of the papers a pastoral letter of
the Iost Rev. DIR. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe civ
ing q blood-curdling description of outrages which
continued to be committed with impunity against
life and property in Clare ] visited Ennis the
capital of the county was told that in one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
perpetrated unoffending men One of the VIC
tins was ex-soldier. who was acting letter
carrier and who was shot in the highway in open
day Although many people passed his wounded
body the road not would comfort or re-
lieve him till the police several hours after.
wards. These passers by doubtless felt that IL
they gave any help TO the victim they might meet
the same fate as himself. So helpless has British
law become in the county of Clare.
Sauntering round the narrow streets ! fell in
with old who did object to conversa-
tion. He proved to be expoliceman This
did not mince matters in detailing his views
and experiences Glare was the most peaceable
county in Ireland. said he. when ! Joined the
force. but the cursed Land League came upon u.s.
and since then things have been different Most
of the you meet the road Fenians or
Ribbonmen. and many of them are criminals"
] told him ] thought this too strong de-
scription of his countrymen. He however. stuck
TO his opinion. and took me to an elevated spot at
the back of the Court House, from which he
pointed out the scenes of many seventeen
assassinatons. all more less successful. but
for which only brought to
justice.
II is not alone the indictments and the secret
society men that refuse to tell the police what
they know about outrages Even the relatives of
the injured persons often known to adopt a
similarly uncommunicative attitude. To give in
formation to the police is to be branded as an
'informer," which is the most offensive epithet In
the Irishman's vocabulary, being worse than that
of 'hangman." The stigma descends from father
to son, while there is any of the family left to
endure 1t. My expoliceman friend told me that
he himself had heard Glare mother, whose son
was shot before her eyes. make the avowal that
che would rather all her lying dead be-
side her than become hated "informer." She
brought the secret to the grave with her.
] asked my friend for his opinion to why the
force was so unpopular. He laid the blame un
hesitatingly upon the English Government The
Government have employed the police almost ex
clushIyely at evictions and other such unpopular
tasks when they might have employed the regu
lar soldiers the militia. The result s that the