The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-02-18
LAW ENFORCEMENT.
ALONE WILL STOP
SWEEPING GRIM E.
WAVE IN THE CITY
KANSAS CITY POLICE CHEF SAYS
THAT POLICE PROTECTION IS
RESPONSIBLE FOR DEPLOR-
ABLE CONDITION

Kansas City. Feb. 1S---The nation
wide crime wave, an aftermath of the
passions reused by the great war.
is an "alibi' pure and simple, a
myth concocted by inefficient police
heads TO excuse the prevalence of
crime. This is the statement of
Charles Edwards, a former major in
the American Expeditionary Forces,
recently appointed police chief Of Kan
sas City.
Increased crime Is attributed by Ma
jor Edwards in large measure TO lax
law enforcement, and strict and inn
partial law enforcement will wipe cut
the crime wave" he asserts. Edwards
who was police captain before the
war. says he is familiar with crime
conditions both before and since the
war, and insists that the war has
had nothing to do with crime in
creases.
"Not one man in 80 who runs
amuck of the police is an ex-soldier,'
he said, "and the occasional one We
find Is usually not an overseas fighter
at all, but an habitual criminal who
was criminal before the war and
was a soldier simply because he hap
pened to be caugh; in the selectiye
draft"
/ Cooperation with state and federal
| authorities is one of the methods
employed by the new chief in his ef-
| forts to eliminate crime. Under his
! instructions the police are raiding
bootegging establishments, particular
/ ly wholesale bootleggers, and arrest
| ing vendors OF narcotics.
1--WE are attempting" the chief said
ito stop crime ut its source. Those
sources are the bootlegger--and If you
| get the wholesaler you shut off the
retailer, the seller of narcotic drugs
and the gamblers. We are arresting
gamblers. In an effort 10 stop bank
robbers, payroll thieves and motor
bandits we have stationed men at all
banks.
Every police captain is responsible
for the suppression Of all forms of
law-breaking in his district He is
held as strictly accountable for mis-
district as q company commander In
the army Is for his company. If he
can't deliver the goois, We get some
body who can.
I'VE have handled the vagrancy
problem in this way. The man whc
wants to work Is sent to the board OF
public welfare and the board Of publi'
welfare finds him work. II he does
not want to work The goes to the mu
nicipal farm. Drug addicts, who form
the great majority of our petty thieve;
are sent to the municipal farm to tax,
the drug cure. Perhaps fifty pei
cent uf them are cured.
"rhcrc Is no mystery connecte,
with the suppression of crime. The
answer is alert, strict and impartia
| enforcement OF the law--ot all th'
: laws on the statute books. Because M
; offensc Is punishable under foiera
(. statute is not "A reason for Leaving
? the arrest OF the vloators to the fed
! cral authorities.
: "Wc have closed all night show
, because VIZ have found them rem
DEVIOUS LOT tn' lhWlVSe' MVh INV
there and plan crimes and In tn
small hours of the morning go GU
! to perpe,ratc them. We have there
fore closed the places
: Meanwhile. we are replacing Tn
c corrupt and inefficient policeman witt
D a man who will perform the dutic
60 which he, Is sworn"
Chief Edwards IL veteran OF III
Spanish-American War, the Philippin
ibsurrection and the world war.