The Washington herald., 1915-07-19
Spectacular Police Methods.

strange change has come over Washington
in recent months that seems to call for the expert
services of nothing short of another Congressional
board or commission to isolate and analyze it, as
the scientists put it. Either the once mild and
docile people of the Capital have become fero-
cious and dangerous its police have fallen vic
tins to pitiable timidity that has hitherto found
bluccoats and brass buttons invulnerablc; else
and this is the only other explanations police
drama, with the scene laid in the Nations Capt.
tai is soon to appear in the motion picture hlms
to thrill the provinces There is other way
in which to account for the revolution in local
police methods, that has abandoned the old way
OF discovering law breaker, procuring war
rant arrcstng hir; and summonng witnesses when
necessary for the prosecution and adopted the
dime novel Wild West formula that begins
with profound mystery, followed by the trailing
of the suspect and his accomplices 10 their lair
the surrounding of the low, dark, forbidding
stronghold in force, and the grand finale, the raid
with guns and clubs drawn.
spectacle such this, surprising, enhancing,
was presented in this city on Saturday night. when
the police swooped down establishment
where music and beer flowed in unholy and pos
sbly unlawful harmony. Upwards of seventy per-
sons guilty OF finding enjoyment amid such sur
roundings, bundled into half a dozen patrol
wagons, while spectators blocked the streets and
cheered Or jeered as the mood took them. OF the
seventy odd only one, the proprietor of the place,
was held The others, after being subjected to the
humiliation OF ride through the streets under
police guard to the accompaniment of Changing
bells, were not even required to furnish collateral.
The officers OF the law, admitting that they had
committed no offcnse, merely took their names in
case they shouldt be required witnesses. The
proprietor held for trial charge of main
tanning a disorderly establishment the music pos
siby contributing the disorder. If he was en-
gagged in violating the law he should have been
arrested in orderly way and the necessary
witnesses summoned by due process. Amy eff
ccut policeman could have managed the job single
handed without attracting mob and without
subjccting scores OF persons, admittedly blame
less to indgnity. If the establishment is
Quoted in violation of law it is the duty of the
police to bring its proprietor to justice and COM
pei him to close his doors if he persists and their
duty is the same with regard to every similar es-
Establishment in Washington. But it is not neces-
sary to disorder in enforcing the law against
disorder. There is strong suggestion OF Russian
autocracy about Saturday nights proceedings, to
which the people of the Capital of the United
States not yet prepared to submit
1t will to many persons that all of the
policemen who participated in Saturday nights
thriller one, might better have been employed
in hunting down the murderous automobile BAN
dts who within period of eight days robbed one
lunch and shot attendant in another when
he resisted. The desperadoes left everything in
the way OF clcws behind them except their names
and addresses, but they are still at large.