Middletown transcript., 1915-02-27

other grave crime
The same condition was shown to
exist in Philadelphia when not long ago
a half-dozen or more trusted policemen,
including a sergeant or two, were con-
victed of officially promoting crimes of
high grade and were jailed despite the
perjured protests of their fellows and
the pull" of the boss politicians.
In truth, it is no exaggeration to say
that in those big city centers, crime is
syndicated-arson, murder and private
assassination become systematized
trades wherein gunner, bravos and
stealthy incendiaries may be hired to
assault the citizen in property, reputa-
ton or life-often with the connivance,
and protection of the officers of the law
themselves. This frightful perversion
of the police arm which renders these
custodians of the peace, in the words of
Junius, formidable only to those whom
they were sent to protect" has been
made possible thru the powerful agency
of corrupt boss politics until from San
Francisco to New York the police have
become in some cases a graver public
danger than the criminal classes them
selves
But the peril of venal policemen is
exceeded by that of quibbling or dis
honest administration of criminal codes
by unfit judges. Too often our criminal
trials are farcial, if not disgraceful,
especially when plutocratic sinners or
rogues with political influence. are hailed
to the bar of justice.
Many of our states, thru mistaken
pity or a maudlin sympathy, have
abolished the death penalty for murder;
but so promptly and invariably has that
crime increased thereafter, that there
now remain but five states out of forty
eight which retain the lesser penalty of
life Imprisonment.
Our American penal codes and judges
have gone to the opposite extreme of
emasculating criminal sanctions, where
England at the time Blackstone pub
lished his Commentaries in 1765, made
some 100 offences punishable with death,
including the theft of 26 cents
Today England's penal code is a ra-
tional one, neither bloOdily Draconian
as in that early day, nor yet so maudlin
feeble as many of ours, while the
criminal procedure of English Courts is
much superior to ours in most respects.
What with silly penal legislation,
foolish or venal judges, weak juries and
easy pardoning powers in governors ol
boards, crimes of violence have enor.
mously increased in the United States
amply justifying the famous boast ot
the criminal in the car-hook murder
case, 80 years ago in New York City
! that hanging was played out.
Governor Blease of South Carolina
psrdoned 5000 convicts, several hundred
murderers among them
A comparison of the criminal record
of London and New York shows tn,
following startling result: In New
, York City in 1918 there were 1871 muir
ders committed; in Chicago, 1852, Will
, in London, only SO Robberies, assaults
in 1918, in New York 926; in Chicag
, 1,O41-in London, in the same year, bu
: Is! The number of homicides per 100,
600 in the United States is over fiv
, times as great as that in England an
/ Wales and over ten times that in Scot
land.
= And yet in the face of all this, on
I sentimentalists would abolish the whiI
D ping post, and thus incite burglar
and wifebeaters to greater activity
What the law needs is its extensio
to include kid-gloved rascalities-th
: crimes of genteel rascals whose bt
d trayals of fiduciary trusts in banks
8 estates, etc., bring ruin and sorrow I
thousands.
n AS it is, these crimes far more dal
g gerOus than any single theft or burl
s larry, are more lightly punished, and
8 the rogue embezzle enough ne cal
with his Doodle either fight the law
a penalty off quite, or drag out the tria
until he almost dies of old age befoi
- they end
p STREET NOW A WRECK