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Show I Criminal' Playground FTHE daily reports of serious crime there Is every indication that the word has been j spread far and wide that Salt Lake City is a "cinch" town. The result is thst hoodlums are invading in-vading the community and making it a crimi-j crimi-j rials playground. The police department ap-. ap-. pears to be confronted with a condition which It is unable to handle. The result is that no householder may feel secure in his own home, no pedestrian may feel safe upon the street at i night Prowlers ransack business houses, bolder miscreants operate in the glare of lights In-the downtown section and robbers almost nightly Victimize service stations. The armed and menacing burglar who created cre-ated a reign of terror in the W. T. Cannon home early Tuesday morning has spread fear ever the city. Both the prominence of the vic-, vic-, llmr and the -details -of the -crime have served to dramatize th peril confronting the community. com-munity. But this banditry by no means stand apart from many other burglaries. In January there were 70 others. This month o far there have been 39. Ther were 20 robberie in January Janu-ary and In February 10. In addition to these offense, of-fense, assault, larcenies and auto thefts brought total crimes reported to police in January to 2M. c,,.. M.intH numbered 38. Four were con- victed. With lea than a week left of February, what will the record for thl month be? It would be unfair to put th whole responsibility responsi-bility for the existing situation upon the police. If th morale of the men I hken is it to be wondered at? Desperate men they arrest at risk of their own lives either slip through the court or th pardon board, only to return to their nefariou business her or elsewhere. In case where police officers are simply Inefficient is it because th civil service law or-eegulatlon drawn under it make it too difficult to obtain their removal? Are ubordinat leader In th department obtaining full cooperation from th men serving under them? Are these leader giving Chief of Police Finch and Mayor Erwin, commissioner of public safety, th cooperation they have right to expect? W do not pretend to know the answers to the questions, but it Is newspaper's privilege to ask them. Th public J bewildered and m questioning mood. It must be assumed that the city commissioner commission-er Individually ara awar of prevalent crime condition and of th failure of th polio department depart-ment to cop with them. Why do they not In th Interest of th people whom they represent manifest some curiosity and at least mak an effort to develop the fact and unitedly mov toward to-ward a solution? If th other four municipal " .deoartments were functioning at comparable efficiency, the city would be on th way to bankruptcy, bank-ruptcy, it water supply failing, it street In deplorable condition and It park and public property In a state to reflect sham upon th city. Or, doe th city commission feel that It b not concerned with th protection of human life and property simply because thi is th immediate responsibility of th department of public safety? A state of alarm exist her. It is entitled to be recognized and dealt with by the municipal government |