The Washington herald., 1913-08-24

It is time to drive the politician from
public life, and either to mend or destroy
the machine. according as the necessity
may determine.
When Shooting Is Necessary.
We promoted to roundsman a patrol
man. with an already excellent record,
for gallantry shown in a fray which re-
suited in the death of his antagonist. He
was after a gang Of toughs who had just
waylaid, robbed, and beaten man. They
scattered. and he pursued the ringleader.
Running hard. he gained on his man,
whereupon the latter suddenly turned
and fired full in his face. The officer al.
two shots rang out almost together. The
policeman was within a fraction OF
death, for the bullet from his opponents
pistol went through his helmet and lust
broke the skin of his head. His own ann
was truer. and the man he was after fell
dead, shot through the heart.
I may explain that / have not the
slightest sympathy with any policy
which tends to put the policeman at the
mercy OF a tough, or which deprives him
of efficient weapons. While i was Police
Commissioner we punished any brutality
by the police with such immediate Sc
verify that all cases of brutality prac-
tically came to an end. No decent citizen
had anything to fear from the police dur
ing the two years Of my service.
But we consistently encouraged the
police to prove that the violent criminal
who endeavored to molest them or 10
resist arrest, or to interfere with them
in the discharge of their duty. was him.
self in grave jeopardy; and we had every
gang broken up and the members pun
isked with whatever severity was neces-
sary. OF course, where possible, the Of
ficer merely crippled the criminal who
was violent.
Trained in Use of Pistol.
One Of the things that we did while in
ONCE was to train the men In the use
Of the pistol A school OF pistol prac-
tice was established, and the marksman-
ship of the force was wonderfully i'm
proved
The man in charge of the school was
O roundsman, Petty. whom we promoted
to sergeant. He was one Of the cham
pion revolver shots of the country, and
could hit just about where he aimed.
Twice he was forced to fire at crimi-
N-~A-
case he hit his man in the arm or leg,
simply stopping him without danger to
his life. -
In May. 1896 a number of burglaries
occurred far uptown. in the neighoor-
hood of One Hundred and Fifty-sixth
Street and Union Avenue. Two officers
were sent out each night to patrol the
streets in plain clothes. About o'clock
on the morning of May S they caught
q glimpse OF two men lettering about a
large corner house, and determined TO
make them explain their actions.
In order to cut on their escape, one Of
ficer went down zone street and one the
other. The first officer. whose name
was Ryan, found the two men at the
gateway of the side entrance of the
house. and hailed 70 know what they
were doing Without answering, they
turned and ran toward Prospect Ave
nue.. with Ryan in close pursuit. After
running about one hundred feet. one of
them turned and fired three shots al
Ryan, but failed to hit him. The two
then separated. and the man who had
done the shooting escaped.
The ether man, whose name proved
to be O'Connor. again took to his heels.
with Ryan still after him; they turned
the corner and met the other officer,
whose name was Reid, running as hard
as he could toward the shooting. When
O'Connor saw himself cut OF by Reid,
he fired at his new foe, the bullet cut
ting Rei6's overcoat on the left shoulder.
Reid promptly fired in return. his bull
let going into OConnor' neck and caus-
ing him TO turn a complete somersault.
The two officers then cared for their
prisoner until the ambulance arrived,
when he was taken to the hospital and
pronounced mortally wounded. His COM
panion was afterward caught, and they
turned out to be the very burglars for
whom Reid and Ryan had been on the
lookout.
In the Days Work.
In December, 1886, one of our officers
was shot. A row occurred in a restau-
rant, which ended in two young toughs
drawing their revolvers and literally ruE-
ring amuck, shooting two or three men.
= policeman, attracted by the noise, ran
up and seized one of the toughs, where
upon the other shot him in the mouth,
wounding him badly. Nevertheless, the
O