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Show Vt -- ! i Published Every Saturday BY GOODWINS WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC 2:15pnri:H; JAMES P. CASEYBuainess Manager P. QALLAGHER, Editor. . SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: : i'iSSS : Including postage in the United States, Canada and Mexico 12.50 per year, to all foreign countries,, within the Postal .45ani Jd for six months. Subscriptions' B :55am .fri-c- , ioopm ilon,1-$4.5f - r v per year. :05am :30pm i i J.P t' , : y V tizeiiis of our community while allowing vice kings and gamblers . conduct establishments that harbor .the vicious characters respon-fbl- e . ter the crime wave. 1,1 with as much conThe police do not treat the worst criminals . i .''.I .. ggfj timely as they treat citizens who have committed a slight infraction f a traffic regulation. One reason, perhaps, is that they are not IHIIIjatching any. of the worst criminals just now. While bank robbers nd burglars ply their trade without let or hindrance within the very hadow of the police station citizens are thrown into cells with vags, etty thieves and dope fiends for refusing to give their lifes history hen arrested for a traffic violation. While amateur and professional criminals rob. banks and homes iir hold up people in the heart of the city and while the police run ground vainly in circles to obtain clews, citizens who go. so far as P;0 argue with the police are compelled to spend hours in noisome d , i jells' Just how extensive, has been the practice of, insulting citizens Kjjve do not know, but inasmuch as the police admit that they apply same system to everybody we assume that whenever a citizen SjjjilS jlares to assert his dignity as a human being he is subjected to fjjjjjSihe Kl'H'jjjiumiliation. The police are strenuous and meticulous in their efforts to catch jrpautoists who station their cars sixteen, or seventeen, instead of the gljjrequired eighteen inches, from the' curb. The other day a policeman, armed with a foot rule, was seen mull; llllllimaking his way by slow degrees from Main street .to State street on EN .Exchange Place, measuring the distance of each car from the curb.. Perhaps it. was' on the same day that a robber plundered a hank jwithin a hundred .yards of the police station. The citizen to whom we allude had stationed his car on Exchange Place and had neglected to move it within two hours. He had an committed a plain violation of the ordinance and a policeman dropped disa warning tag on the front seat. The citizen, as soon as he covered the tag, hurried to the police station to report. When he :was asked his name he gave it, but when he was asked the date jand place of his birth he was ruffled and inquired with some asperity: 5 What difference does that make? What has that to do with :a yioaltion of the traffic ordinance? When he was roughly ordered to answer the' question lie called : attention to the fact that the police were using the taxpayers mone : to hunt down those who committed the slightest infractions of traffic eel laws burglars to loot the town. but were allowing bank robbers-an; .t t min? . ' i POLICE PERSECUTE CITIZENS WHILE NEGLECTING CRIME , Police officers are permitted to insult and humiliate respected " Single copies 10 cents. Payment should be made by Cheek, Money Order or Registered Letter, pay able to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1919. at the Postoffice at Salt Lake Act of March 3, 1879v under the City, Utah, 31112-1- 3 Ness Bldg. Salt Lake City, Utah. Phone Wasatch 5409. T .Ts-- t !!!!!!!: V Would you rather spend the day in a cell than answer the questions ? the officer at the desk asked. I rather think I would, was the reply. Since those questions have nothing 'to do with the case. You are treating citizens who have driven cars here for a dozen years as if they were vags or vicious criminals. him. said the officer Bring him around here. and .well-searcat the desk. The citizen, in his anger, refused to give the $5 bond and wras hustled off to a cell, after his money and other valuables had been taken from him. There he found himself in company with several dope fiends and a number of police characters. Several hours later his attorney appeared, deposited the bond money and the prisoner was released with instructions to appear in court the next morning. When his name vas called in court with that of half a dozen others accused of violating traffic rules he found that the police had filed a special complaint against him. lie was compelled to wait while Judge Crockett heard the case against the others. The judge discharged all of the accused. Judge Crockett then asked the citizen to' state his case and he did it something after this fashion: I object to the treatment I was subjected to by the police. It seems to me that a man who has been a citizen for years and who. just as soon as he finds the traffic tag in his car, reports to the police and gives his name ought not to be treated as is a common vag or a criminal. The fact that 1 reported showed that I intended to conduct citizen and to accept whatever penalty was myself as a imposed. But I was treated as if 1 were a suspicious character. Thn system is wrong that subjects a taxpaying citizen to the same pro. i law-abiddi- ng - cedure that is necessary in booking criminals. It appears to be the system, said Judge Crockett. Yes, and it is a system to which I strenuously object and against which the citizens should protest. There is much merit in your contention, said the judge. I discharge you and I suggest that you do not dismiss the matter from vour mind, but that you take it up with the mayor and state your -- case. Whether this citizen intends to take up the matter with the mavor we do not know, but we fancy the mayor will first hear of it through The Citizen What sense is there in requiring the head of a bank, an insure Salt Lake machinist or carpenter, or ance company or. an m m old-tim- |