Evening star., 1925-01-05

exactly as the officer saw it at the
moment when he acted.
''If the police are to be censured for
using force in making arrests, and
compelled to answer to charges in the
courts, their usefulness to the COM
munity would be at an end, and in
stead of performing their duty to the
best of their ability, they would
adopt the sensible policy Of safety
first closing their eyes to crime and
avoiding trouble.
Only Two Complaints.
I'm the investigation which we have
made of Police Court. only two com
plants were received alleging harsh
treatment at the time of arrest.
''One was the complaint of Davis,
whose arrest in Georgetown for an
assault on an officer has been given
considerable publicity in the local
newspapers, and it seems therefore
not amiss to identify the case by
name.
The other case, charging assault at
the time of arrest, occurred some
months ago, and the testimony, in our
opinion, completely eXonerated the ar
resting officer.
Takes Up Third Degree.
THE courts, here and elsewhere.
are being confronted frequently with
the repudiation by defendents of con-
fesSionS made to the police, on the
ground that such confessions or in
eliminating statements were eXtorted
by force, either actual physical vio-
lence, threat Of an intimidating char
acter, exhaustive interrog alton, de-
priVation of sleep or food, promises
of immunity, etc. or what is common
IL he It'd ., a
take it the chief object of the courts
charge to this grand jury was to
discover, if possible, whether there
is any substance to such allegations.
of whether they are the afterthought
of rascals who have repented their
earlier admissions and decided to take
chances with the jury.
The confession plays an important
part in criminal procedure. and there
is no doubt that formerly the attempt
to obtain confessions from suspects
by physical torture, or less violent
means, was a recognized experiment
for securing the conviction of the
guilty. Inasmuch as confessions are
obtained by the police, and offered
in evidence, in a large proportion
of cases brought to trial, it is highly
desirable there should be no sus-
picion of third degree methods at
tached thereto.
Under this classification, where
confessions or statements were in
volved, we received II complaints
representing four separate and dis
tinct cases. One case covered three
prisoners, arrested for the same Of
fense; another covered six prisoners
and the other two were individual
cases.
Charges Not Backed
"In our opinion, there was no
evidence in any of these cases to cor
roborate the testimony of the COM
planning witness
The charge of mistreatment of
prisoners, however, is not confined
to the matter of confessions, and this
jury regrets to report that in the
course of its investigation it did find
evidence, in three cases, of serious
assaults on prisoners held in station
houses. In one of these cases, desig-
mated for reference as Mr.. D.. it was
alleged that the officers involved did
make some inquiry of him of a minor
character, but, in our opinion, that
was not the reason for his harsh
treatment, the more probable reason
being that of revenge-to punish the
complainant for outwitting the two
policemen and preventing them from
making an arrest or a couple of rum
runners for whom they were lying
in wait when the complainant came
along and defeated their plans We
are convinced that this complainant
was the victim of a cowardly and
brutal assault by two officers of station
NO 2, the identity of the two officers
being known; and undoubtedly this
jury would have made a presentation
against these two officers if il were
not for the fact that the complaining
witness, a bootlegger. was prevailed
upon to drop the charges which he
had filed with the Police Trial Board
The evidence showed that this man
mad been beaten severely with a rub
Der hose by two officers while held
prisoner in No. 2, and while he was
stlll smartfng from the effects of
TINS mistreatment, physically and
mentally, he filed charges with the
trial board against these officers.
Prisoner Scared Off.
The day the trial was to be held
ne telephoned to the police authorit-
les that he did not desire to press
the charges, and when questioned as
TO his reason for his changed atti-
tude, he indicated that some inf1uent~
lal friends had advised him to stcp
Because of the character If his nm
lawful business, he evidently saw the
logic of the suggestion. Unfortu
nately, the witness could not, or would
NOT recall the names of any of these
1rlends. The police inspector who
investigated the case for the denart-
lleht stated IN his report of the mat
ter that he believed the assault oc-
Cured as alleged. However. in
spite of all the ugly aspects of this
case, the two officers have so far es-
capped punishment of any sort
w nile 1t is obvious the courts can
not act In such cases without the testi-
mony of the complaining witness tba
tacts, stripped of the essentials of iudi-
c1al PROOF, are of such an aggrayattnp
character as, in our opinion, to warrant
drastic disciplinary measures within the
Police Department itself, and if it is i'm
possible to do so under the law or reeu-
lations, we believe there should be a re-
vision of the system which will enable
those responsible for discipline in tbe
Police Department to enforce it. There
should certainly be no room on tba
force for officers of this character and
the sooner the department cleans bouse
OF such men the sooner thirddeerae
charges will end and public slspicion
cease. The retention Of such men, who
have been referred to by their SUPERIOR
as Oueh anu dTu-DOlled is
unfair to the other SO per cent of the
force who discharge their obligations
to the community efficiently and with
credit to all concerned.
Attack Called CowardIy.
1--WE also received a complaint from
another man who had been held at No
9 station house, under a charge of
being intoxicated. The complainant ad-
mitted the truth of the charge, and
that while in the station he may also
have been noisy. But in any event he
was in a defenseless condition at the
station, and whether it was because he
was noisy or profane there certainly was
no justification for the Ir,,tn1 ..-...-.,.