This indictment was based upon clear proof of the irregularities practised by certain members of the New York police. They may be summarised under four principal heads, with each of which I will deal in turn. (1) _Blackmail._--A tariff was fixed under which a tax was imposed upon disorderly houses, drinking shops, gambling places, and so forth, and was paid, no doubt cheerfully, for immunity from police interference. This tax varied from twenty dollars (£4) to five hundred dollars (£100) per month. The moneys were collected by detectives and other constables, who received a commission upon the sums raised. These extortions were not limited to the caterers for vice, mostly native American citizens. The poor, ignorant, and friendless foreigner, who was seeking a new home in the New World, was constantly and wantonly plundered. If he dared to protest he was beaten and maltreated. A wretched Italian shoeblack, who had cleaned an officer's boots for a month on credit, was half-killed when he dared to ask for his money. A Russian Jewess who had opened a small tobacco shop got into the black books of certain detectives by refusing to supply them for nothing, was arrested on a false charge, and heavily fined. (2) _Brutality._--These charges cover a wide range. The Lexow Committee stigmatised the police-stations as "slaughter-houses," [Illustration: SQUAD OF AMERICAN POLICE DRILLING.] where "prisoners, in custody of officers of the law and under the law's protection, were brutally kicked and maltreated almost within view of the judge presiding in the court." Numbers of witnesses testified to the severe assaults made upon them at the station-houses. It was a word and a blow with the policeman, often no previous word. A significant story was told to the Committee by Mr. Costello, an Irishman attached to the staff of the _New York Herald_. His work took him much to the police headquarters, and he was apparently on good terms with most of the officers. The experience he thus gained led him to produce a book called "Our Police Protectors," which had a good sale, under the patronage of the police, until one of the officers brought out a book, which drove Costello's out of sale. Costello, accepting his disappointment, produced another book about the Fire Department. Again he met with competition from a man protected by the fire and police authorities. He endeavoured to fight for his own hand, but soon got to loggerheads with the police. He was arrested on a trumped-up charge, and when taken to the station-house was knocked down by an officer--"brass-knuckled," for the ruffian's fist was armed with brass knuckles. Then he was brutally kicked as he lay half-stunned in the muddy gutter. Another still more brutal case was that of a gentleman who interposed in a fight and was attacked by a policeman who rushed into the _mêlée_. The officer, striking out wildly with his club, caught the well-meaning gentleman on the face and knocked his eye out.