Show I 1 I 1 THE WHIPPING POST I 1 I 1 the dhiel of police of seattle has recommended to the Gover governor lir of dashington Vas hington the use of the whipping pos post in the punishing ot of wife beaters and wife demerle rs he lie quotes wm A pinkerton head of the detec dete tho effic a agency gency as a having advocated that form of punishment in a speech before the international association of chiofa chiefs of police in at hot springs lat april the credit Is somewhat misplaced I 1 our own chief thomas E E browning brought the subject before the convention land and his address aroused greater ln interest than that bat of any paper considered his chiq sWe statements ments were taken up tip by the president of the convention who urged that members offer their opinions freely on oil a subject t so important fco to which invitation william A LA pinkerton responded by br declaring he had been an advocate advocat of the whipping post for certain offenses tenses of not only for bif and wife desertion but for those th ose criminals criminal s who break into homes mr pinkerton also aid id that a thief who caters enters 2 a house after midnight with a rey revolver olver upon his person upon conviction thereof should be sentenced to death chief brownings address was the I 1 stirring event of the meeting and his paper printed in the proceedings of the convention has bas brought him many complimentary compliment aTy letters and not a few inquiries the chiefs of police are filled with hatred for the criminal class and og dens chief is no exception but we doubt that in prescribing punishment it would bo be aleo wi for our legislators to follow the chiefs implicitly by dally daily contact alti the rough edges of ot society the off officers leers of the law become beco me less forgiving less charitable less 1 sympathetic I 1 mpa than the public generally hat is thy why they want whipping posts an and why they would execute midnight burglars but flogging one criminal and beheading another will simply brutalize the executioners execution ers and not deter the criminal at large while having the highest regard for chief browning knowing him to be an exceptionally honest and fath tul public servant we are impelled to oppose him in of the whipping post and we do not agree with gitil william A pinkerton in his demand for the death sentence to be inflicted upon burglars and our reason is that in neither case Is good accomplished although much harm may result when we again resort to flogging a step backward will be taken IR in the method of treating criminals there was a 0 time when the rack garrote and pillory were employed but humanitarians after centuries of appealing against such forms of brutality gained the day and turned rays of sunlight into dungeons and eliminated the lait suggestion of inhumanity in jail and penitentiary |