Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-18
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL 7. COLLINS.

| 1918 for intoxication, and 1882 in the
f1scal year ending last June 3a-double
the arrests IN & population only 50 per
cent increased? Why? One police of.
f1cer explains that the liquor drunk to-
day is so much more powerful that one
OK two drinks makes the drinker dead
drunk Commissioner Dougherty at
tributes the excess of arrests TO the
increased efficiency OF the police. Ten
years ago. drunkard was not arrested
unless he made himself intolerably con-
spicuous: today all found drunk in pub
lie are arrested"
The arrests for all felouies in 1919
were 2.i57: last year. 4.439 Not all
that increase is under the Volstead Law
For example, last week a patroInnan
ticketed the writer's automobile for
parking 20 minutes on K street near
Fifteenth. where three other automo-
oileS were already parked Back of all
the four offending autos. nearly half q
blocS from the corner, was an unseen
sign, mo parking to the corner" or
Reserved for public vehicles" But
there was no mark painted on the
roadway from that little sign up to the
corner. indicating the taboo" The
patrolman chuckled in court over his
success in catching from Il to Is" a
both thu Police Department and the
Traffic Bureau since has been called
to the unfair trap" but no painted
mark vet segregates 1t and puts drivers
on notice.
Query: How much Of the increased
record of arrests by police is petty and
now much for serious speeding or muir
Ger or robbery? How much to sly DO
lice traps" to build up records tend
ing far more than the Volstead law
to bringing law enforcement into con-
tempt because Of its trivialitv? Thr
court declared the patrolman was not
to blame for the trap" Who VAST
II is favorite argument By the on
possrs Of the prohibition laws that The
laws cannot he enforced. hence they,
bring contempt on all laws" and
should be modified or rsueaied." The
last annual report of the Federal prison
at Leavenworth states page 33) the
number of prisoners in the Federal
prison for violation of the drug act
tnarcoticsl leads the classes of Grim
inals. 1t is. for narcotics. 1859: for
motor vehicle crimes, S34: for violations
OF the prohibition act. 800 at the be-
ginning of the year. AIS ar the end of
the year, BY the snti-Volstead logic.
because the narcotic law Is persistentlv
violated more than any other law, it
should be repealed. and narcotics be
admitted without limit or restraint.
Also theftS of automobiles. or man
slaughter by reckless or vicious drivers
cases In excess of all liquor eases In
the pententiary--demo that n
should BE- made no crime To steal
motor car. or to murder with one
There are more violations OF postal
laws than there are of liquor laws; why
punish the postal robbers or abuserx
Of the ranking privilege. or norons
who use the mails for obscene literature
or for frauds Abolish Law tina, IA
violateds" Crime Is increasing throuSh-
ont the country. Five years aso. the
three Federal psnitentiaries received
400 convictS last year. $500 But tho
iusi story Is not told. because nobody
Knows now biz or numerous were the
nSh that GOT away" The one feature
beyond dispute is that narcotics Isa1
me crimes, ahead of the violations ~
houor laws, The conclusion ~ shs
"no'e matter, as agreed by notice
expert, appears 10 be that the new arc
slippery problems Of police work ear
tor higher intelligence In mse.,rr
lhem than former conditions demanded
'CopSriSht iacs nv Paul Y. Collins,