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Show Public Must Combat Crime "The reduction of crime depends n"t so much upon prosecuting officials and ?ourts as it does upon the attitude of the people," said Silas H. Strawn, President Pres-ident of the American Bar Association, recently. When prosecuters and courts and juries know that the people are watching them, they realize that the public conscience has been awakened ;o action, and they are more apt to do cheir duty. Thus, in the final analysis, the .responsibility for the reduction of ;rime rests with the people." Before any great change or reform :an be instituted it must have a background back-ground of public interest and activity. A lax public consciousness must-inevitably result in inaction or retrogression. retrogress-ion. It is apparent that today the majority f the public looks upon crime as something some-thing apart from its own concern. The interest taken in important cases is mainly either morbid, or that of a sentimental sen-timental minority of professional Salvationists Sal-vationists and sob-sisters who make martyrs of the most hardened criminals. crimin-als. There is very little real, intelligent public concern over our "crime waves.' , There is practically no concerted public pub-lic action to stop them. The result is, naturally, more crime and less regard for law. Our entire legal system suffers from a superabundance of red tape. Complicated, Com-plicated, unnecessary laws often allow criminal cases to be drawn out, through the medium of delays and "appeals," over a long period, and eventually, in many instances, justice is circumvented altogether. And if convicted, the criminal has ready resources to parole boards, pardon laws, good conduct deductions of sentence, sen-tence, repeals and other means to effect ef-fect his liberty, with the aid of well meaning but often misguided reformers In one state it has been said that a sentence of "life imprisonment" means, on the average, about five years. Mr. Strawn's remarks, coming from high authority, are worth regarding. They indicate that the fault and the cure lie with the public. |