Norwich bulletin., 1920-05-29
NEW LONDON AND ITS MANY PROBLEM

graduate Or even a full course high school man, with these facts in mind a man close to the police department, not a uniformed man, has declared that the police department is gradually becom- Ing dumping ground for cripples and others physically unfit for rigorous po- lice duty. In support of his rash asser- ton, he told of men on the force who could not pass examination for insurance out who were pronounced by the police committee fitted for police work. He declared others had chronic disease that
 would have been discovered if the physi-
 cal examination was an examination in
 designation only, One member, he
 said, had verbose veins for many years,
 and another went on the sick list soon
 after appointment by reason of chron-
 ic disease of long standing. He declared
 that there was elacticity in the rules
 of admission to the force, just as there
 were on the general enforcement of the
 police rules, all depending upon whose OK was being gored. The rules, he
 said, were like the rulings of the treas
 ury department in custom collection
 cases, each decision referring only to the
 individual case under consideration.
 As members are appointed during good behavior, and are getting cracking good
 pay the rules governing the admission of members ought to be strictly adhered to- inpartially and without fear or fla vor, especially the latter. Judging from some of the appointments made since the department has been mare than doubled since war activities ended. many appoint ments are made at the behest of individ- 1 uals who are alleged to have pull or | influence with the appointing power, if 1 some of the statements made in public 1 places be true. So far as known every i member of the police force, old and new are men of good moral character and all 1 that but physical ability is main re- | quirement for efficient police service, a service that ought to be intelligently di- rected.
 l Cut out politics in the police depart
 ment, or the management thereof and | there will be no kick coming to the de- I partment, or any member thereof. This ] does not mean that the actual members 1 of the department are in the game, but 1 there are members who are used as cards | by the dealer. to help win in the game. A handicapped police force cannot give 1 the best there is, in it for the good and welfare of the dear public, any more i than can a department where favorites are played There is still room for just
 a little bit more of improvement in the 1 big police department of the city of New | London.
 l The time was in old New London when 1 the ma N,rity of the families kept a pig 1 or two and sNme families kept more | and it was common sight for kids to be
 seen going through the streets with a l swill pail gathering in food to fatter l the 'porkers. There were actually pig
 colonies and one of these was located
 in Water street, on the riverside not fal from John street There were probably | twenty pig pens in that colony the own
 CTS of the pigs and pens having squattet i on the land for piggery purposes cnly | There was probably not, a barn in tht
 city that did not have pigs in the. lowel
 section. It was case of pigs here
 there and everywhere. In time the pig