Evening star., 1916-10-12
Do Regulations Regulate?

To the Editor Of The Star.
Are not some of our police regulations,
or laws, so rigid as TO be practically
futile? Rigid in the mode of execution. l
mean. This is not criticism of the po-
lice force, but of the system.
For instance, there is a regulation
against what is termed disturbing the
peace. nuisances, and so on There Is,
of course. in every community noise
making element, and this regulation was
designed for the protection of the others
But does it work always in actual prac-
tice? 1t appears that the police force
cannot deal directly with disturbers, owing
to the rigidity of procedure. except in
case of street fights and such. Usually
there must be complaint" and if the
noise maker is not amenable to appeals for
mercy, the victim must drag the matter
through police court. In case of ILL
ness this may amount to tragedy. This
sort of procedure makes the regulation
almost imperative for people of refined
sensibilities, who are reluctant TO appear
in police court
My conception of police functions has
been twofold-that punishment Is not their
entire province, but that protection OF the
helpless is even more important So l
would like to ask the authorities if this
regulation could not be made less rigid.
The noise problem is growing more acute
every day, and even the noise makers
themselves often object to being, in their
turn. disturbed.
In cases Of Illness, as above mentioned.
those in charge of the invalid have. in
addition to their other crushing diff
culties. to undertake a siege with the Po-
lice Court The invalid sometimes dies in
the meantime. This is Supposing the
noisemakers to be iInpervious to appeals
mi inc nafi ir1QS
there are. of course. all kinds OF people.
But if people were all merciful We would
not need any policemen
j have in mind case of young man
who was very ill: they had neighbors of
the noisy sort; appeals were made in
vain: the disturbers made the usual rou-
tine excuses-the matter was eXagger-
ated. there was not very much noise, the
young man was not very i'll. the complain
ers were fussy. In fact. the matter was
treated rather as joke; there was
hilarity in order to minimize il. ] don't
know whether the relatives took any fur
ther steps, but in few days the young
man died. 1t created quite scandal be-
cause there was no doubt in the minds of
was aggravated by the disturbances. But
he had to die TO prove his case. We are
not all of US so fortunate as to die at the
psychological moment
Personally. ] recently had comforting
experience with the merciful kind A
young man hads been in the habit of ex-
pioQlng a motor cyce IN 'front.' OF the
house at u late hour of night. II was hot
weather and the noise went all through
the house. So / sent him a note telling
him that / had an invalid. with heart
trouble, in my care; sent it in fear and
trembling because he was stranger and
didn't know how he would receive it.
But almost Immediately. after Just the
time required to read my note. he hurried
to the door with it in his hand to express
his regret and say it would not occur
again. And it did not. But if people
were all like that We would not need any
police force.
So ! want TO express, through the COL
urnns Of your paper, the wish that the
regulations. in their mode of execution,
could be made less rigid and the police
force increased. Our police power would
then be more effective.
HINDA BURKE.