Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-08
Politics Held Responsible
For Shooting of Children

Almost unanimous is the country in
branding the turning of machine guns
on a group of children in a New York
gang feud as due to an alliance between
politics and lawless elements. The
metropolitan officials and police are Wig
orously charged with challenging the
supremacy of Chicago as the unham-
pered field for killers.
ut is an alliance which corrupts en-
forcement and public offices, stultifles
public sentiment, haunts law. order and
decency, makes a mockery out Of our
sacred institutions--an shoots innocent
children in the back" according to the
Uniontown Herald. Observing that New
York gangsters have begun moving
down little children and the police have
been ordered to Shoot to kill and aim
above the waist line, &" the Chattanooga
News, condemning Tammany, declares
The gangsters at whom the police will
aim above the waist line will not be the
gangsters who have been paying off.
IF those in New York who temporize
with crime" advises the Sioux Falls
Daily Argus Leader, have a spark of
conscience or manhood in their make
ups. they are shudcering over the fear
full Chings their activities have wrought.
They cannot drive from their minds the
picture of the helpless children lying
bleeding In the Harlem street And on
q general scale it should disturb every
New Yorker who holds an official ca
pacity connected with law enforcement.
Quoting a police statement that the
( department is up against the stumbling
block of characteristic silence--a situa-
ton which ought to wake the public
up" the san Antonio Express COM
| ments: Wake it up TO what? The
metropolitan section OF the American
public reputedly Is outraged over the
latest effect ST gunman activity locally,
but what is It's and its police forces re-
action to the cause? On the very night
of the atrocity the police evidently
found no stumbling block in the way OF
charging the child-killing gunfire to the
rami1cations of the beer war And the
following day one man who was dragged
in as a suspect-mistakenly supposed 10
own the death car-'was known to police
circles as a beer runner More than a
column Of newspaper type is needed to
tell about The nature of the city police
endeavors 10 bring in the killers. The
story contains not one word concerning
Federal. state or city official efforts to
smash the prolific source and cause OF
lust such atrocities--the beer waT itself
| yet on July 20 and again on the S0th
the names of rival chiefs in that bloody
business figured N the news of tire
child Slaughter
..The indiscrininate shooting that
would seem to prevail among gangSters,
IN the opinion of the Charlotte News,
is a deadly threat to the safety Of
innocent people, yet IT cannot be less
than obvious t1as the real crime, the
real menace TO the American people, lies
in the piet that. except for an lnctnsing
accident. would have been listed as Just
another gang killing" The Sprinkleld
(Mass.) Republican charges that 'the
police are handicapped oy the pe1tec-
tinn which many Of the gangstsis en-
ioy through a tortuoSs series or con-
nsctions. official and political. Shooting
'kl4ewn gangsters on sight IS not going
to get us very far In cleaning out the
racketeerS and their murderous hire
lings.
1.-THE outrageous character OF the
crime itself" in the Judgment of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is incentive
enough to stir the police to their utmost
apaeity," and that paper proclaims that
mo matter how apathetic humanity may
appear in other things, any tale Of
cruelty to children arouSes it,
This instance CT turning Inachine guns
upon children at play In an attempt to
put a man on The spot, resulting III
death and wounds. WIS enough TO arouse
/ the roflIlace to fary--and it has" .rfe
Worcester Evening Gazette says This
| particular outrage, like every other great
crime, ought to result in convicticn and
punishment But turning every police
man loose to act as judge, jury and
executioner Is not calculated TO produce
! the desired result"
- IS
Reforms are almost impossible while
J the grip az the gang remains as strong
as II is today" asserts the Lexington
Ltader. but the savannah Morning News
thinks the Staying may do more to