Courts and Criminals

Courts and Criminals, by Arthur
Train

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Title: Courts and Criminals
Author: Arthur Train
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5268] [Yes, we are more than one

year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 21, 2002]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COURTS
AND CRIMINALS ***

COURTS AND CRIMINALS BY ARTHUR TRAIN

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These essays, which were written between the years 1905-1910 are
reprinted without revision, although in a few minor instances the laws
may have been changed.
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CHAPTER I
The Pleasant Fiction of the Presumption of Innocence
There was a great to-do some years ago in the city of New York over
an ill-omened young person, Duffy by name, who, falling into the bad
graces of the police, was most incontinently dragged to headquarters
and "mugged" without so much as "By your leave, sir," on the part of
the authorities. Having been photographed and measured (in most
humiliating fashion) he was turned loose with a gratuitous warning to
behave himself in the future and see to it that he did nothing which
might gain him even more invidious treatment.
Now, although many thousands of equally harmless persons had been
similarly treated, this particular outrage was made the occasion of a

vehement protest to the mayor of the city by a certain member of the
judiciary, who pointed out that such things in a civilized community
were shocking beyond measure, and called upon the mayor to remove
the commissioner of police and all his staff of deputy commissioners
for openly violating the law which they were sworn to uphold. But, the
commissioner of police, who had sometimes enforced the penal statutes
in a way to make him unpopular with machine politicians, saw nothing
wrong in what he had done, and, what was more, said so most
outspokenly. The judge said, "You did," and the commissioner said, "I
didn't." Specifically, the judge was complaining of what had been done
to Duffy, but more generally he was charging the police with despotism
and oppression and with systematically disregarding the sacred liberties
of the citizens which it was their duty to protect.
Accordingly the mayor decided to look into the matter for himself, and
after a lengthy investigation came to the alleged conclusion that the
"mugging" of Duffy was a most reprehensible thing and that all those
who were guilty of having any part therein should be instantly removed
from office. He, therefore, issued a pronunciamento to the
commissioner demanding the official heads of several of his
subordinates, which order the commissioner politely declined to obey.
The mayor thereupon removed him and appointed a successor,
ostensibly for the purpose of having in the office a man who should
conduct the police business of the city with more regard for the liberties
of the inhabitants thereof. The judge who had started the rumpus
expressed himself as very much pleased and declared that now at last a
new era had dawned wherein the government was to be administered
with a due regard for law.
Now, curiously enough, although the judge had demanded the removal
of the commissioner on the ground that he had violated the law and
been guilty of tyrannous and despotic conduct, the mayor had ousted
him not for pursuing an illegal course in arresting and "mugging" a
presumptively innocent man (for illegal it most undoubtedly was), but
for inefficiency and maladministration in his department.
Said the mayor in his written opinion:

"After thinking over this matter with the greatest care, I am led to the
conclusion that as mayor of the city of New York I should not order the
police to stop taking photographs of people arrested and accused of
crime or who have been indicted by grand juries. That grave injustice
may occur the Duffy case has demonstrated, but I feel that it is