OCR Text |
Show TIIECASE0FCALEinr.il EsT, Jit. The statement has been published and not denied that Caleb W. West, Jr., while iiarfially Intoxicated, and In the presence of a number of persons, per-sons, near thcjirlnclpal thorougfare or this city, covered ajoungman with a revolver and, on pain or instant death, compelled him to dance. While this perfornianco was In progress, a young man named Joseph .Nelson approached tlie spot where It was going on, w hen young Vcst,withoutprovocatIoHofanysort aimed his revolverat Nel-on's neck and, at point blank range, pulled the trigger; and tint the revolver contained at least tlireo charges, but tho hammer fortunately fcll.ou an empty chamber. It was a narrow cscapo or Xelson from being shot in a vital part Xelaon ran to the City Hall and reported to a police officer tlie attempt tbat liad Just Lccn made upon his life, and the further fact that West had threatened to kill him jet, Tho officer refused to aet without a warrant. It being evening there wns not an attorney at tlie City Hall to draw a cirupiaiiit, and no officer at'haud authorized to issue a warrant. Xelson tried repeatedly but in vain to secure the arrest cf West by the police department of thceity, but was baffled because of an evident purpose of the officers not to make tho arrest. Westlsstlll at large. Confirmatory or the foregoing, forego-ing, and particularly of the disposition disposi-tion or tho police department ot the cltyln regard to the case, tliofollow-ing tliofollow-ing is taken from the ehief "Liberal" organ or the IGth: "Tho case of Caleb Wester ,was not brooght up in court yesterday; and I the reason, as stated by the Chief of Police, is as fotlotrs. Coanty Prosecutor Prose-cutor Moylo put a representative named K.uton Into the Police Court some timo ago to attend to tho county business, and such cases genrally as did not cumo under tho city ordinances. ordinan-ces. Bat for the lat three weeks Mr. Easton has been on a plc-u!c in Colorado, Colo-rado, and tho business ho was snp- IVm! In faVo Mmnf irnnl &?,r ,ra for Sunday, except such pressing ! matters as Assistant City Attorney Eichnor was willlni; to put himself oct Id attend to. It Is not his place to look after Comity Attorney Moyle'o business. busi-ness. Ilccannot be expected to do it units! paid, and Easton never even suggested jay when he went away. Tho prosecution ofj-oung West comes in Mr. Moyle's jurisdiction, and as ho has not deputized Mr. Eich nor, tbo laUcr would have to conduct the case without pay, something lawyers are not over anxious to do. Moreover, lie was very busj at the time w ith city business, w hich he was laid to attend to, an J ho did attead to. Ills conducting tho caso of the gnn. play on Officer Itatragh was gratuitous on his part, and was dono because Brother Moylo ccnld not or d.d not attend to his business. If JIoj lo will appear and ask for a warrant, there will bo no trouble aboot its being served. Tho Chief didn't know but that the grand jury would handle the case, and save all tho prellniinarv troublo and expense of bringing It Into the lower court," From the foregoing It would seem that the chief of pclico holds hlsde-partmentundernoibligatlop hlsde-partmentundernoibligatlop to make arrests forany offenses except those w hich are in violation of a elty ordinance. ordi-nance. Felonies will not be cognizable cog-nizable by his subordinates. If a policeman sets two men lighting with fisU and feet, ho will arrest them, because fighting of that character char-acter would bo a viulation of a elty ordinauce. But if one man cuts another man's throat with fatai effect, the case is "count business," and tlie city police need not exert themselves to apprehend the murderer. mur-derer. Should a witness of the homicide seek to procure his arrest) ho mu-t see the county attorney ; the city attorney is not aid to prepare pre-pare affidavits nor warrants for the arrest felons, Hurglary is a felony; then fore the arrotand prosecution of burglars Is "county business" and outsldo the purview of the city police. Any citizen w ho imagines tliat the wearers wear-ers ot blue suits and brass buttons, who promonade the streets are paid to protect the people rrom licing shot, at the caprice nrdruuken desperadoes, des-peradoes, or to bo a check upjn the enterprising burglar, or to ln-terfero ln-terfero In a restraining waj wiui pen-ons who contemplate the commission, orhave committed, any felony, are laboring under a delusion. This is ail "county business." busi-ness." Ifcitlzens fear housebreakers housebreak-ers they must apply to the county for protection. If they have been shot or shot at, they should save themselves time, trouble and disappointment disap-pointment by applying to the sheriff's ofllce, passing the City Hall. ir, however, a citizen is disturbed by a discordant noise, or if he is an-noyed an-noyed by the dumping of garbage in the street, a reprcsentatl vo of the police department will rush, with hair streaming in tho winJ, and coat tail flapping in the breeze, to arrest the oflendcr. I n so grave an emergency a warraut-will rot bo waited for, but the culprit will be secured first, and formalities attended attend-ed to afterwards. "But sliould an intoxicated ruffian disturb a citizen's place by shooting, instead of yelling, at him, and further add to his discomfort bj threatening to kill him later, nothing noth-ing can be done until some magistrate magis-trate has Lcen convinced, by an affidavit, that an offense has been committed, and issues a warrant to an officer. The danger tliat the criminal may escai, cuts no figure in alleviating the ncccssityfor red tape. i However absurd the foregoing deductions may arjiear, they logic"-ally logic"-ally follow the position taken by the chief cf police in tlie West ;ase, If he Is correctly represented by his own organ as quoted above. To show that tlie rraclico of tbo police department of this this city lias always been diverse from this position; tliat the law makes provision for tho arrest or all classes or offenders by tho cltj police, and for the payment of the expenses of Territorial cases, aud that tho stand Liken by the chief or police Is untenable, Illogical and abmrd, would bo very easy to do. There is a widespread suspicion tbat some mysterious, tallsmanlc effect was produced upon tho police department by the announcement or the name or tho culprit in the case, which had a great deal more to do with Its policy than did any question or official comity or refined dletinctlousbetweeu city and eou nty business. A PjiRis'correspondent says that Mr. Stanley Is Iho color of a cooked olive, and Ids hair Is white, but he does not look much aged, and has every appearance or being In good health. |