Courts, Criminals and the CamorraTrain, Arthur Cheney
History
Courts, Criminals and the Camorra
Train, Arthur Cheney
Camorra; Criminals -- United States; Justice, Administration of -- United States
Now, although many thousands of equally harmless persons had been
similarly treated, this particular outrage was made the occasion of a
vehement protest to the mayor of the city by a certain member of the
judiciary, who pointed out that such things in a civilized community
were shocking beyond measure, and called upon the mayor to remove the
commissioner of police and all his staff of deputy commissioners for
openly violating the law which they were sworn to uphold. But, the
commissioner of police, who has sometimes enforced the penal statutes
in a way that has made him unpopular with machine politicians, saw
nothing wrong in what he had done, and, what was more, said so most
outspokenly. The judge said, “You did,” and the commissioner said, “I
didn’t.” Specifically, the judge was complaining of what had been done
to Duffy, but more generally he was charging the police with despotism
and oppression and with systematically disregarding the sacred
liberties of the citizens which it was their duty to protect.
Accordingly the mayor decided to look into the matter for himself, and
after a lengthy investigation came to the alleged conclusion that the
“mugging” of Duffy was a most reprehensible thing and that all those
who were guilty of having any part therein should be instantly removed
from office. He, therefore, issued a pronunciamento to the commissioner
demanding the official heads of several of his subordinates, which
order the commissioner politely declined to obey. The mayor thereupon
removed him and appointed a successor, ostensibly for the purpose of
having in the office a man who should conduct the police business of
the city with more regard for the liberties of the inhabitants thereof.
The judge who had started the rumpus expressed himself as very much
pleased and declared that now at last a new era had dawned wherein the
government was to be administered with a due regard for law.
Now, curiously enough, although the judge had demanded the removal
of the commissioner on the ground that he had violated the law and
been guilty of tyrannous and despotic conduct, the mayor had ousted
him not for pursuing an illegal course in arresting and “mugging” a
presumptively innocent man (for illegal it most undoubtedly was), but
for inefficiency and maladministration in his department.
Said the mayor in his written opinion:
“After thinking over this matter with the greatest care, I
am led to the conclusion that as mayor of the city of New
York I should not order the police to stop taking photographs
of people arrested and accused of crime or who have been
indicted by grand juries. That grave injustice may occur
the Duffy case has demonstrated, but I feel that it is not
the taking of the photograph that has given cause to the
injustice, but the inefficiency and maladministration of the
police department, etc.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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