Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-28
Eliminate the Unfit!

President Hoover is right The pub
lie, and officials investigating derelic-
tions on the part of a group or groups
of uniformed men. should not condemn
the Washington Police Department as a
whole. For in the ranks of the depart
ment are a predominant number of
honest, trustworthy citizens, who have
made police work life career and who
today are immune from charges of bru-
tally, graft and collision with criminal
elements. These men ever have stood
staunchly against brtitalities directed
against prisoners, brutalities which it is
charged have made certain precinct
stations hell holes" for some who may
have broken the law, or been held
merely for investigation" These bet
ter police ON occasion have stood
Staunchly against the practice of beat
ing prisoners At times they have even
threatened to arrest officers resorting TO
aggressive mistreatment Of those in
their custody.
Charges of police brutality are not
new in Washington. For years there
have been charges and counter charges.
Always there has been a plentiful sup
ply Of white wash" to cover police
trails. Where a prisoner has had the
temerity to complain against the police,
certain members Of the department
Immediately have set outh either to
discredit the witness or, it is charged
threaten such prisoner with fur
ther reprisals. It is charged that In
some such cases prisoners have been
forced, BY fear of more beatings or
bounding, to deny that they ever pre-
ferred charges This method is not
new or particularly native to certain
individuals in the Washington Police
Department. Countless Investigations
have proved 1t TO be common prac-
tice IN other cities.
In Washington, as elsewhere, there
has been an unwritten law that
what occurs within the department is
secret within the department. Thus 1t
is that In some instances has been seen
the banding together of men IN entire
precincts in order that black sheep"
may be protected and that there shall
be no faint on the police department
as q whole. Police interest for police
interest and the public go hanged has
appeared to be the guiding precept
In view of the large number Of COM
plants and charges that already have
been filed with investigators. it is to be
assumed that the Washington depart
ment is not free of those practices
which are condemned by the public at
large. Neither. as President Hoover
indicates, is it fair that all police be
placed In the same category as those
who 90 so far as 10 vent their brutal
instincts in merciless beating OF help
less prisoners.
There must be q separating Of the
sheep from the goats in the Washing
ton Police Department
Those who violate law and human
instinct must be swept from the force.
There should be no fsvoritism.
II hish-ranking officers have COM
nitted or even condoned viciousness,
they should go. No mercy must be
shown.
Capable and trustworthy officers
should be elevated to higher positions
where their records and performances
may be permitted to redeem the de-
partment from the condemnation that
has come by virtue OF the actions OF
the few.
Integrity, high sense Of duty. cleanli-
ness-these are the things demanded Of
the Washington Police Department by
the Washington public.
They are The things which by viz
tue Of the present investigation are in
fair way Of realization.