Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-28
The Pursuit of Criminals.

: TWO recent trdEeQleS In washington
have brought under public discussion
Che question of police activity in pur-
suit of lawbreakers. In one n youth
was shot to death by n policeman in
the chase of a recklessly speeding
motor car. which, as events proved,
was stolen. The policeman who fired
the shot is under charges and his
case will be disposed of by the District
authorities In the second and later
case fireman was killed in collision
between the apparatus on which he
was riding and. according to the find.
ing of a coroner's jury, fleeing boot
logger car which was being chased by
squad of policemen.
Indignation has been voiced by some
citizens at this latest, as at the ear
lier, occurrence, on the ground that
the enforcement of the law does not
justify the use of deadly weapons, in
the discharge of which lives may be
taken, or by the employment of high
speed. which may endanger lives of
innocent persons. One especially fu
rious condemnation of the second
tragedy comes from a member of the
United States Senate, himself conspic-
uous in opposition to the eighteenth
amendment and the enforcement law
enacted under it.
Separating these two cases, which
ct, ;al.
widely differing considerations, it would
seem to be unwarranted to score the
police for their pursuit of lawbreakers
in manner to cause them to violate
other laws than that of prohibition
and to endanger the lives of people
in their flight. If the bootleggers. who
are confessedly engaged in an Illegal
traffic. are not to be chased because
of the risk to innocent persons on
the road, enforcement Of the Volstead
law is impossible. If they are to be
allowed to run their Illicit loads into
town in security because of the
chance that in trying to catch them
somebody may be hurt, or killed, the
enforcement law is repealed in effect.
Let there be a clear understanding
of the responsibility for these recur.
ring tragedies Of the. road. 1t rests
not upon the officers OF the law, who,
acting under proper orders-to give
other orders would be dereliction on
the part of those in authority-seek
to overtake rum-runners. but upon the
bootleggers themselves, Tho, in de-
f1ance of the law, try to smuggle car
goes of liquor into Washington, or
other cities. 1t rests in part upon
those who by their acts and words
justify this traffic as legitimate law
breaking.
There can be no legitimate law
breaking unless this country is to
repudiate it's organized processes of
government. An unenforced law, vic.
lations of which are permitted because
Of the difficulties and dangers Of en-
forcement, is a menace to peace and
a factor of Generalization. Theodore
Roosevelt, when commissioner of po-
lice in New York, demonstrated the
possibility of enforcing obsolescent
and, through official neglect and COM
placence, unexecuted statutes. He
proved the possibility of doing that
which 1t was claimed could not be
done. declaring that the best way
to test the worth Of a law was to
enforce it strictly, and If it was not
good law to repeal it. 1t is to be
remembered that there We're few If
any repeats Of statutes following this
demonstration, and there were a good
many more inmates in the State peni.
tentiaries. to the advantage of that
commonwealth.
There should be no confusion about
the responsibility for the tragedies
Incident to the enforcement of the
prohibition law. It should not be
placed on those who In obedience to
command endeavor to catch the law.
breakers. just as they try TO catch
the thieves and the murderers and the
violators of women and the kidnapers
OF children. There is no differential
category. and the man who fees from
the police with a load of Illicit liquor
must, as long as the law stands on
the statute books, be pursued with the
same speed and determination as a
slayer trying to escape from the scene
Of a homicide.
The ways Of publicity are erratic.