The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-02-02

gregar1oss habits Of criminals, and
were founded upon watchfulness, SUI
pervisions OF HANDOUTS, and STOOL
pigeons. Here prohibition struck the
police mighty blow.
The old hang-outs are gone. All
up and down New York, 1 looked in
vain for the Bucket of Blood"
Clancy's, McGovern's, -Gallagher's-l
all those strange, dark memorable
places where stealthy habitues of the
submerged world carried on their
almost fabulous lives and made mer-
ry within the shadow of the prison
walls. Prohibition has scattered the
criminals from their familiar and
public hannts, where they had to live
constantly under the eye and hand Of
the law, into the inaccessibility of
! every city, to thrive in security and
, privacy. It has rendered close po-
lice supervision next to impossible
and 1t has created condition which
will require larger numbers Of police
than were ever employed before, es-
; pecially in view of the time and en-
ergy now devoted by policemen to
the quest and apprehension of the
bootleggers.
The old Underworld has passed.
Isn't 1t perfectly obvious that new
| police methods are necessary? Amy
Intelligent person can see it.
Here are the new methods sug-
gest: 49,.
First, stop the press from being a
reference book for criminals.
The gangster element could be
broken up by. enforcing the vagrancy
laws. If the toughs knew they would
be put behind the bars unless they
found respectable work to do, few of
them would remain idle.
The trouble with the modern police
departments is simply this: They
concern themselves chiefly with the
detection of crime, and do not give
much thought or effort to it's pre-
vention.
When criminal is released from
I
weekly report about him; check
him up, and. keep in touch with him
until he finds work Better still, he
should not be released from prison
until position has been obtained for
him. Even then, the police should
have a monthly report on him, and if
he doesn't keep straight, put him
back in prison and keep him there
longer. But the police should not be
allowed to hound the ex-convict who
is working, and keeping straight.
Cities win have to be divided into
zones; and thsLefficer in charge of
;, zone should hal card system with
the name,s ageSfeex, address, nation
atty and emp3 yment of every per-
son in his zone
These card cords, checked twice
a month, would enable the zone keep
ers to keep on the so-called
floating popuia on. If John Smith
moved, into an apartment on West
Goth street. am twas found that
john sept 11f3Say ANA Was out ar
, night, it might be interesting to the
police to find dut just how John got
his dollars. Again, when John rent
ed his apartment, if he said he was
. employed at Gimbels, and the investi-
cation showed that he was. not known
there, detective, put on his trail,
might possibly discover that John
was crook. IS
It's q new and decidedly intelligent
Underworld that the police have to
combat. The slick crook cannot be
picked out in atcrowd because of his
gsudy clothing. He does not talk
like tough mug, because he isn't
tough. And he doesn't hang around
in the dives of the back alleys-be-
cause such dives have ceased to ex-
ist.
In these days you don't know who
lives next door to you, you need not
be surprised to learn that the fellow
across the hall Is bootlegger-or
possibly hold-up man.
Combating the crime epidemic is
merely matter Of well-organized,
intelligently-directed effort, coupled
with the realization that there has
been evolution in the Underworld as
we'll as in the upper, AID that the
criminal has kept pace with the
march Of advancing civilization. We
have witnessed in the last four years
!