The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-09-08
OFFICER WEIS
MAKES REPLY
Attempts to Answer Leaders Call
for Explanation of Arrest of a
Local AutOiSt.
The following statement appeared in
tho Tim NO 1ocf TbnroJc-.

to causing the arrest of a citizen VIII,
was violating an ordinance by per
mlttlng his automobile to stand OF
the street headed the wrong way.
When I took the office as policeman
understood that / was to do m,
duty and since that time / have exer
cised my best judgment, and the
editor of the Leader has in previous
issues Of his paper, commented favor
ably upon my acts. 1t has been my
aim to be just and fair and where
have discovered persons violating ar
| ordinance or state law, / have called
such parties attention to the fact sc
as to give them the benefit of the
doubt in case they were violating such
! law unknowingly and have only
caused arrests to be made where ]
knew the violations were made will
fully or recklessly, or where | had
previously called attention to such
violation, and | am sure that the edi.
tor of the Leader has been misin.
formed as to the true facts of the ar
rest of his brother-in-law that he
complains of.
The facts are as follows: Sunday,
August the 10th, / discovered that
Mr.. Platz's automobile was standing
at his residence on the south side of
Main street, facing west. His son was
near the house and l sent him in to
call his father. His father appeared
and l politely called his attention to
the fact that he was violating a city
ordinance in force, by permitting his
automobile to stand as it did, and in
tended to suggest to him to kindly OBJ
serve the ordinance in the future, but
before being permitted to do so, Mr..
Platz interrupted me, stating that if
he was violating any ordinance it was
my duty to make a complaint against
him. | suggested to him that if that
was the way he felt about it | would
accommodate him and make COM
plaint. l accordingly on Monday morn
ing did swear out a warrant against
him. This was placed in the hands OF
the chief of police by the justice, to
be served. During Monday Mr. Ptatz
met me in business place and sort
of sneeringly suggested that he saw l
had not done anything about making
complaint against him. Some time
after that the chief served the war
rant. I feel that under the circum-
stances my acts do not bear criti-
cisms.
My object in making this statement
is because the editor of the Leader in
his editorial rather calls upon me for
an explanation and / am perfectly
willing to explain Besides | am sur
prised at the attitude of the Leader
editor in this case as in the past his
policy seems to have been to inforce
the law. His editorial charges me
with not having made the arrest
sooner and then finds fault with me
for having made the arrest at all.
Herb Weis.
In regard to the above we will state
that we have in no way misrepresented
Officer Weis', actions. He infers by the
article that we would not have critics.
ed him if the victim had not been bro
ther-in-law to the editor.
In this he is very much mistaken as
our editorial would perhaps have been
more severe if this had not been the
case. The Leader will always take the
side OF any citizen who Is unfairly treat.
ed. He states that he politely called
Mr.. Patz' attention that the ordinance
was being broken. This Is untrue. To
yell in very loud and authoratiye voice
from the center of the street to Mr.
PiatZ in the doorway of his home, "Turn
her aroundp' and the same time max
ing a sweeping motion with his hand
is in our opinion far from polite.
Mr.. PlatZ stated that he was going to
drive ON in minute hut was again or
dered to turn the car. Mr.. PlatZ said
"Makp complaint" and went into the
house returning almost Immediately
and driving away. He states that he
considered an arrest for such small Of
tense preposterous and meeting officer
Weis the next noon asked him in a iok
ing aay if he had the warrant. Officer
Weis replied Il haven't had time yet"
He states above that he got out the war
rant Monday morning but had stated to
Mr.. Platz Monday noon that lie had not
yet done so. The summons were not serv-
ed until Tuesday, and it is our opinion
that Officer Weis did not intend to make
a complaint until spoken to by Mr.. Platz
on Monday. If Mr.. Platz had shown a
sufficient amount of humility and fear
for the mighty Officer the arrest would
never have been made and it is exceed
ingly presumptious on his part to ex-
pect citizens to be humiliated. We still
claim the arrest to be unjust because it
is taking one out OF scores of ordinance
lnfractors. II Officer Weis arrested
every person breaking any one of the
nineteen pages OF road laws and city
traffic ordinances he would arres. scores
every day and the citizens would not
stand for it.
The Leader certainly is in favor of an
orderly town, but to enforce the road
laws to the letter would mean many dol
lars in fines daily and the Leader is not
in favor of that. 1t certainly ie wrong