WILLIAM TELL IN LOS ANGELES

Hokitika Guardian, 6 December 1928, Page 7

WILLIAM TELL IN LOS ANGELES

To a quiet Britisher, accustomed to he proud, of the fact that our policemen go unarmed, and that moral force and 'the majesty of the law are their chief weapons, it came to me as a surprise when I learnt that the police force in Los Angeles are all expert shots, 'flic chief of police is a splendid gunman, and he and his team recently won the national championship in revolver shooting. Their training in shooting is carried almost to the point of being trick firing. They practice day pigeon shooting and the chief himself the other day at an exhibition of revolver firing broke five out of six day pigeons, using a strange revolver. Then with a gun in oadrhand he shot two pigeons in opposite directions. He is a brave man, for he stood up, a modern William Tell, holding a card edgeways in each hand close to his body while a couple of his men shot them in two at the same time. This, lie explained, was part of their training in exactness and in self-confidence. To such a pitch has lie brought his instruction that the policemen of Los Angeles are now superior to any professional hold-up mon and bank and hotel robbers in the country. In the uot-so-very-old days the man with tile gun was the lawless citizen, and the policeman, though he had a gun, was not too keen to use it, and not usually in towns at any rate, a very fine shot. Now their daily training includes killing dummy men at close and long range, right and left hands being used. The fact that the police force of Los Angeles is becoming so export is not escaping the attention of these professional hold-up men who are attracted to Los Angeles by its particularly delightful climate. For now tlio police* liavo orders to -shoot to kill, and they do it with promptness. ReeenLly a. pair of callow hoys, “movie ” struck and wild, robbed a little jeweller’s shop in the Ihusiest part of tin* town, about nine in the morning. The owner and his assistant were putting out their window displays for the day when tho boys entered, each with a gun. and went through the usual “ Hands-up ” performance. They seized a. handful of brooches and rings, lost their nerve, and ran from the shop. Two detectives in plain clothes who were watching on the opposite side of the street, from information received, for a better known pair of hokluppers. saw the lads, and gave chase. The boys fired, wounding a pasor-by and working havoc in a fountain pen shop: the .policemen fired —once—the boys lay dead. A tragic story, and a warning to other unlawful carriers of guns.

—LADY ADAMS-