Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-21
COURTS HOLD FEW
WHALEN ARRESTS
OF 1900 Nabbed in Drive,
More Than 90 Per Cent
Are Released.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, January 21-Police
Commissioner Whalen's big jail mara
thon finds many starters and few
finishers.
Previous predictions that the courts
would not hold many of the distin-
guished gunner placed in nomination
for the penitentiary were looked upon
as sour and unbecoming, in view of
the commissioners cyclonic assault on
the crime denS. The town wanted to
believe that the way to clean up GRIM
inals was to booth them into Jail, but
the returns from the first grist run
through the law mills are ~discouraging.
1t assays somewhat less than 10 per
cent who were held. with the remaining
80 per cent, guilty or innocent, back on
the job.
Out of 1900 men rounded up in the
big drive which started December "a,
120 were taken on grand larceny
charges. and of these 1T were re-
leased. On assault and robbery charges,
ITO were arrested and held; of taken
on homicide charges, none was held;
petit larceny alone scored 100 per cent,
with 2 taken and held.
Satisfaction at First.
Newspapers and the public generally
Responded sympathetically when the
commissioner began his campaign.
There was general satisfaction with the
daily parade Of supposedly evil viSages
at police headquarters and citizens as
Sured each other that, after all this
talk and investigating, this the one
way to- do the job-clout the crooks
on the head with nightStick and slam
them into Jail.
Now, less than a month afterward
the town finds itself just about where
it was, SO far as immediate possibilities
of effective law enforcement are con-
cerned
Commissioner Whalen was caught be-
tween the cross-ruff of an agitated pub
lie and the cold and disillusioning rec
ords of police and court experience. He
certainly would have been condemned
had he not staged his spectacular raids
and smashing campaigns and it was
inevitable that the later check on his
takingS would be disappointing. The
stories of the raids made good read
ing. and it cannot be said that the re-
cesSion in public interest and police
activity marks lapse to the old level.
The drum beating has rallied section
of the public somewhat lethargic in
the past, to some kind of concerted eff
fort to get closer to fundamentals of
the crime problem.
Already the opinion is advanced that
perhaps, after all, a nightstick is not
the most effective weapon against a
germ, and that some method of moral
fumigation, with a strong dose of po-
litical reform. may be necessary to rout
the racketeers and gunner.
Reforms Are Sought.
Within the last few months various
public bodies have participated in
general pulling and hauling, seeking
changes in judicial and court procedure,
In the jury system and in methods of
sentencing criminals.
The Rothstein case has stirred up
lot of this, and as the more violent
phases of the raiding campaign subSide
the question of Who killed Arnold
Rothstein?" is working its way back
into the news.
One definitely hopeful result of the
squirt of police activity was an appar
entity closer liaison between police and
Federal officials development Of in
terest in many cities as prohibition
has in recent years brought clearly to
the front the question of teamwork be-
tween State and national forces.
(Copyright, 1929