Show POLICE INJURE r INNOCENT MAN MANI I I Brutality Used in Trying to Extort Confessions Is Charge It is a notorious fact tact that the grossest brutalities and tortures are i deliberately anc ane systems systematically ap ap- applied applied ap- ap applied plied in the police stations of the United States in order to obtain con con- confessions cone conti ti e and that in this respect we have C hardly advanced ad from the dark p pages j t. t ages This Is the accusation brought by I Oswald Os fd Garrison G ls editor of the Nation on what he terms the official lawlessness of police throughout the country in using the third degree Writing In the Oc OC- October OCtober Oc- Oc October tober Harpers Magazine he says Not only the criminals but masses of innocent people know of these in incidents Inv In and are aware tilt U t they not only contravene rights guaranteed ed by bythe bythe bythe the constitution but that they the are permitted permUted or encouraged by mayors commissioners of safety and chiefs of police pollee CASH CAse 1 One could recall that the depart depart- department department department ment of justice in Washington set the worst kind of example as wit wit- witness witness witness ness the suicide of Andrea who leaped from the fourteenth story of the Park Row building in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York City as the tile result of repeated tortures physical and mental The departments department's agents a inflicted upon him grave physical injuries they held him in confinement without due due- process of law they threatened him with pain and death d th until he became insane The prisons are full of men who I both innocent and guilty arc are there v because of confessions wrung from fromI I them by methods absolutely forbidden by law and equity It is no defense and no excuse that many guilty or de depraved de- de depraved pra oo creatures are thus deservedly landed in Jail The law is flaunted and degraded de when even the guilty are convicted by lawless methods NEW ABUSES This abuse has not of course ceased with wills the latest change in pub pub- public public public lic police pollee commissioners in New York On May 31 George Pons complained to Commissioner Warren that when he reported the murder of a 1 friend he J I was 35 beaten for an entire night and a rope around his neck was pulled every ery dew and then Two days later he was discharged from a police poUce court as Innocent His appeal for an Inquiry v end nd punishment of the guilty will have ha r no effect if Jf the ulal precedents are I followed He got off well welt for he was r only temporarily crippled Oth Oth rs ra have ha received fractured skulls One Krauss arrested In on 5 1501 clon clan was found to be entirely innocent but the rubber hose hoseI used steed I d while a po po- police police police lice captain looK loot loot-I'd d on put out the sight cf his left eye nobody eye nobody punished and no redress Theodore Dreiser the novelist once asked an Italian boy in the house death at Sing Sing how he hec came c me to confess Pantano replied Easy to ask that Harder to answer Youve You've never been grilled by a mob of detectives I think As fast as one finished another jumped on me They hammered hammered hammered I got tired and faint Pretty soon I would have sworn sworn to anything to assassination just to get a rest So you OU Just caved cand in and said yes es That's right I Just wilted and essed everything s Here we have ha the complete picture pic pic- picture picture ture of the essential cowardliness of the system Twenty-one Twenty men against one attacking him hour after hour without mercy That such happen happen- happenings happenIngs happenings ings can take place is proof positive of the way the work of a policeman inevitably breaks down his manliness and sense oense of decency when he is en entrusted en- en entrusted entrusted trusted with unlimited power over the person of another and is given of officially of- of officially officially to understand that he may go to any lengths in committing crime in order to detect Especially great is the temptation to resort to the third degree because the aver aver- average average average age American detective is wholly without T any scientific training for his work |