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Show situation and what can be done about it, This Week Magazine has queried judges, prosecutors, officials. criminologists and One authority, James J. Allman, director of Relations Office-ithe model St. Louis, Mo., has delivered what might be taken as the text for an article on todays crime. In all communities, he sees a common denominator of Police-Commun- ity problems of social upheaval, urban disorganization and changing attitudes toward law enforcement , plus the recent social conflicts emerging in race relations. He adds: Whether we like to admit it or not, tie art entera ing new phase in law enforcement The three social areas most sensitive to the new conditions are courts, police and, last but not least, the public. Lets take them up one by one: From 1789 to 1932, the Supreme Court overruled its own previous decisions only 27 times. In the next 30 years, there were 39 such second guesses. On one day last year, two deci-siohpset five earlier rulings. Much of the new law is connected with the Courts changed views on the Bill of Rights. Originally, application of the Bill of Rights was restricted to federal court proceedings. More and more, through the Fourteenth Amendments limitation on state actions, the Bill has been extended to the Btates.' Steadily, the Court has whittled e, down police powers in detention, confession-takin- g and arrest of susquestioning, 1. THE COURTS: ns search-seizur- pects. To take one' example, the High Court last year pondered the Illinois conviction of Danny Escobedo, a Mexican laborer, for complicity in murder. There was no allehis brother-in-law- s his statements to that gation had forced. been police Rather, his lawyers pleaded that, following his arrest, he had been denied counsel during interrogation (twice in 1958 the Court had- held right to counsel does not apply in the police station) .and that he had not been advised of his right to remain silent.. The Court had never specifically ruled that a defendant must be given such advice. decision written by Justice Nonetheless, in a reversed the conviction. JusCourt the Goldberg, tice Goldberg said a law enforcement system depending on confessions will, in the long run, be less reliable and more subject to abuses than a system which depends on extrinsic evidence independently secured through skillful investiga- Washington, D. C. After being arrested between 2 and 3 p.m., he was questioned, given a lie detector test and fed. He confessed at 9:30 p.m. Then he was taken before a magistrate and afterwards dictated his confession between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Subsequently, the Supreme Court reversed the conviction because the confession had been obtained during a period of unlawful detention and the police had not arraigned him without unnecThe federal judge who had preessary delay. sided at his trial, later told a Congressional com- mittee: To exclude voluntary confessions on any grounds is detrimental to the administration of justice and has oh occasion permitted the giilty to go free There are those who deplore the legal attitude that has made possible cases such as these. In fact, seldom in our history have judges been suband the higher the jected to so much criticism more the the criticism. virulent it seems, judge, It must be recognized, though, that we are living in times of enormous change, when the threats to our constitutional liberties are matically increased and the liberties themselves must be guarded more jealously than ever. PROTECT YOURSELF! Whatever solutions are found to the national crime problem as discussed in this article, long-ran- ge one responsibility devolves immediately on all citizens The overfor new demand THIS WEEK'S whelming book, How To Protect Yourself, on the Streets and In Your Home, shows how widely this truth has been! accepted. For how to obtain a copy, see the announcement cm Page 12. the editors - -4 tion. ... Must detectives now advise a suspect of his right to silence and counsel before getting his confession? The highest courts of two important states are in direct conflict in their interpretations. California says yes; New York, no. The late Justice Felix Frankfurter once pointed out that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in casfis involving not very nice people. While the fojging has been going on, confessed synagogue desecrators, cop fighters, rapists, men, even murderers have been spared because of what laymen, unaware of the purpose of it all, might consider legal niceties. A pivotal case involved Andrew R. Mallory, who was found guilty of a basement laundry-roorape and sentenced to death in stick-u- p m Largely shorn of its essential power through judicial takeover, says blunt Los Angeles Chief W. H. Parker, the police establishment has been tragically weakened. The case of the police will be considered more fully in next weeks second and concluding article of this series, but mention should be made here of the increase in attacks on police officers. Nationally, about 11 in every 100 are attacked each year, the number spurting by 75 per cent in just four years. In Los Angeles, 643 policemen, 13 per cent of the force, required medical treatment in one year because of injuries. Californias uniformed highway patrolmen are now starting to carry shotguns for protection. Last year, seven policemen were killed in action in New York City. Among the 1,642 who suffered disabling injuries, 13 were shot, 19 stabbed, 58 bitten (by human beings or dogs), 90 struck by missiles thrown from buildings, 98 in- jured by those resisting arrest, 200 punched or kicked. Can anything be done to reverse this trend? Can the police regain the publics confidence? Surprisingly, Chicago, so long a national symbol of police inefficiency and corruption, offers a 2. THE POLICE: promising answer. Only a few years ago, the Chicago Police Department was shaken by a scandal when a thief disclosed that he had been committing burglaries with the protection and even the help of some policemen. Orlando W. Wilson, once a patrolman in Berkeley, Calif., was persuaded to quit as dean of the School of Criminology at the University of California and take over as Police Superintendent. In just five years, he has restored honesty and morale in the police force, and respect and confidence in the public. The Chicago Crime Commission describes the departments progress under his administration as phenomenal. 3. THE PUBLIC: In borhood, 38 persons a New York residential neighheard Kitty Genovese cry and cry again for help as an assailant attacked her three times, fatally stabbing her. Not one of them came to her aid, no one even called the police until it was all over. What.affected her neighbors? Fright? Apathy? So far no one has the answer, but the case does illustrate one fairly typical modern reaction to violence a sort of paralysis. Here and there throughout the Country, as in the fashionable Spring Valley section of Washington, the public has responded more aggressively. Civilian volunteers patrol their own neighborhoods. There have been urgings that retired military policemen nightly ride the buses in San Francisco. la midtown New York City, an apartment house under construction offers a novel inducement to prospective tenants police dogs to guard the premises. , The New York State Senate has agreed to give free pistol permits to retired and pensioned' policemen over the protests of one solon that the measure represents a little bit of frontier law. Some police departments have urged that pedestrians on city streets at night carry whistles or tear gas pens (the latter illegal in many areas). But more cops are a heavy drain on the cops a fascist-lik- e taxpayer, and heavily-arme- d departure from our traditions. Private patrols could be a dangerous step toward vigilantism. and Yet citizen awareness, citizen can play an important role citizen in the fight. Senator Frank Moss of Utah told This Week: As a judge and county attorney prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, I was in a position to see where individual safeguards could easily have prevented many crimes. All too often we invite the robber, burglar or rapist to break the law by making his path easy. For the long pull, President Johnson is appointa ing commission to analyze crime in the District of Columbia. Serious offenses there have spurted at more than twice the national rate, and police escort the women employees of the Supreme Court when they venture out of its quarters after dark. A second Presidential Commission would pursue a comprehensive, penetrating analysis of the origins and nature of crime in modem America to report. with a deadline of mid-19Whatever may be loftily decided by courts the crux of the crime and study commissions problem is the daily interplay between the cop on the beat or in the prowl car and the citizen, a point This Week will illustrate next week. the end self-relian- ce 66 ( THIS WEEK MoflotiM Moy 16. 1966 |