The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-09-04
POLICE
How New York Officers Protected
Paying Friends.

District Attorney whitman's blunt
declaration hat ne believes certain
members of the police force kne v
that Rosenthal was to be killed set a
good many people thinking, says the
New York Evening Sun. of what has
happened to other people who have,
in times past. announced that they
tionate demands of certain police Of
ficers. Whether truthfully or not. Il
great number of persons who have
made money by more or less openly
setting the law at defiance have COM
planned that the police winked at the
violation for a consideration and that
the burden of blackmail became SO
business all went to the police.
Perhaps one of the most notable
cases of the kind was that of Harry
Hill. The burly Englishman. who
enjoyed the reputation. some forty
wears ago. Of being an absolutely
straight sport. ran a resort on Hud-
son street. right around the corner
from police headquarters. at which
there was never any pretence III
obeying the excise law. or any other
OF the legislative regulations pre-
scribed for the management of pub
lie places Of amusement. 1t might
almost be said that there was no law
recognized in the house excepting tn.
word Of Harr~ Hill.
His word. however. was absolute
law and his method Of enforcing 1t
was arbitrary. Any thief-and thieves
We're plenty among the frequenters
OF the housewife dared attempt to
appropriate a penny wrongfully in
side the place was kicked down the
narrow flight Of stairs that led to the
outside door. and thrown into the
street. And Hill delegated no one to
perform this duty. He did it him.
self. The person and the property of
any patron OF his was entirely safe
on his premises.
one Of the stock stories of the
place was of a certain paymaster who
strolled into the place Very drunk
Of Uncle Sans money. When he
left. still drunken. he left the satchel
behind. but going back in search of
1t after he became sober he found it
with its contents intact. And no one
v questioned the truth OF the story.
What is certain is that Harry Hill
prospered greatly. Out OF the profits
rich enough to purchase and MAIN
tain a farm in Flushing, l. l., that
shortly became a resort also for the
sporting fraternity. The Sundays on
his farm We're as lawless as the nights
at his %"theater," as he called it, but
there was the same sense of security
to be enjoyed. On the one hand it
was certain that the police would not
interfere with anything that might
be done. and on the other hand Hill
himself saw that no guest of his
should be mistreated, no matter what
his condition might be.
Not for a long time did Hill him.
self complain that he had to pay the
police for their compiaisance, but
there were few to doubt his word
when he declared, as he did at length
to the verge Of bankruptcy by their
eStortion. He had met their re-
auirements. as he testified when the
matter was investigated in the courts,
until he was no longer able to do so,
and when his payments for protec-
ton ceased his persecution began.
He had hosts of friends, as men of
his sort always have. and there were
many who would have done anything
in reason to help him. His testimony
In court aroused sympathy for him
even among people who had no SYM
pathy or federation for his manner
of life or his business, but from the
moment he 'squealed" there was
never a halt in his downward course,
until he disappeared from public
notice and died a ruined a Even
when he declared. as he did frequent
~ and vehemently. that he was run
ming the different enterprises in which
ne engaged from time to time in the
strictest possible. accordance with the
law, the police interfered with him
on one pretext or another so per-
sistently that he vas driven out OF
business.
His story is only one Of many.
There is a man now keeping a hot
dog" stand on Coney Island who. less
IMAM twenty years ago was making
thousands of dollars every week BY
running a wide open joint" on
Broadway a little below Greeley
square. The police, he said, got It
all. and he was forced out of business
when he would no longer pay them as
much as they demanded.