Evening star., 1937-04-09
Police Jail Terrorism
Third-Degree Tactics Liked to Nazi Concentration
Camps by Writer.

law of criminal assault and battery. |
These cases are called to mind |
by the Gedeon case. Police Commits
sioner Valentine said that Mr.. Ged-
con was not beaten. THE man." he
is quoted as saying, had . double
hernia, and I told the boys not to
touch him" The remark Is bril-
liantly Illuminating. The boys were
told not to touch him, not because
touching" him Is Illegal, not be-
cause Mr.. Gedeon, were he black
with crime, had certain rights un-
der the Constitution and the law,
but because he had double hernia!
Apparently, 'the boys" steered clear
Of his abdomen, because he issued
from his thirty-three-hour uninter-
rupted "cross- with only
a badly bruised face, neck and ear.
But If "the boys" had shattered Mr..
Gedeon's eardrum and deafened him
for life, II they had put out one
Of his eyes, and If afterward 1t
should be revealed that he was to-
tally innocent of the crime to which
he was being urged" to confess, Mr..
Gedeon would have no resort except
to try to indict the individual police
men who were responsible.
Similar Situation Abroad.
In England or in France the heirs
Of Mr.. Monaghan and the French
professor would all have had cause
TO sue the state itself, and they could
certainly have collected handsomely.
And any one of these cases would
have SO inflamed public opinion that
1t might easily have caused the fall
Of cabinet!
stitutional and criminal, but they
are, from the viewpoint Of intelligent
penology, plain idiotic. The police
themselves think that whoever killed
the Gedeons and their lodger was
demented. They are looking now for
4 homicidal maniac-who had been,
according to the reports, in two or
three asylums and discharged as
cured" In any country where there
is intelligent treatment of crime such
a suspect would be hospitalized and
cross-examined, not by half . dozen
bruisers with rubber hose, but by
trained pSychiatrists, who would
almost certainly extract convincing
evidence one way or the other. Not
since Calico has a confession wrung
from q man by toture been con-
sidered by civilized men to be worth
the paper it Is written on.
Apart from that, the character
assassination which goes on in our
enlightened country during criminal
processes bafIies description. MIR.
Gedeon has already been tried and
practically hanged in half the news
papers Of New York. His hands are
are strange. He happens to be an
upholsterer, who has access TO pri-
vate dwellings, and I should think
that after all that has been written
his business with respectable house
holders would be ruined. Now the
mad sculptor Is being publicly tried,
not by an impartial jury. but by the
police commissioner. who fatty an
nounces to the world that he Is the
koAty AAaA, AAO w AAhAA VI Vic pI esq
OF the city. Maybe Mr.. Irwin, If and
when apprehended, will be found ia
be as guilty as the Borgias, but he
isn't, according to law, guilty yet
And in England half the newspapers
OF New York could be prosecuted for
criminal libel.
Sees Law Losing Respect.
Respect for law is not engendered
by these methods. Thousands Of peo-
pie In this country still think that
Hauptmann was not guilty; first
because he WAS tried both ways In
the press, and, second, because the
people distrust police methods.
There are two bills pending In
Albany to stop .hird-degree methods
in New York State. They ought to
be passed. And since the MonAghans
and Gedeons can hardly appeal tc
the Supreme Court, similar bilk
should be introduced everywhere
What are our police prisons anywayl
Na1 concentration camps?
(Copyrisht, 1877