A CHICAGO RAID

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1929, Page 6

A CHICAGO RAID

NEW YORK, February in. The police drag-net was spread over Chicago during the week-end and 3,000 citizens of the underworld were caught within its folds. There are 6,000 policemen in the city, so statistically each policeman arrested half a man. Unfortunately it is reported this morning that no “wanted ” men were captured' This mighty drive, the greatest in America police records, was devised by Police Commissioner Russell as an answer to a week ml' crime in which four persons were shot dead, many seriously wounded, and more than ft)o robberies committed. This so stirred Deputy-Commissioner Stege that he called together the city’s squad leaders and cried ; “.Every joint in this town must lie I visited. Never mind injunctions. H you are barred, seize an axe and chop your way in. Grab every crook with a record. Raid night clubs, theatres, hotels, beer Hats. Every crook in Chicago must be in his cell by .Monday morning.” These orders wore as far as possible aibeyed. Every known habitat of tbioi and gunman was entered, with hundreds of arrests taking place every hour. “ DRESS-SPIT CROOKS.” Throughout the theatre district plainclothes men sought “dress-suit crooks > and anyone loitering in the streets win was unable to give a good account ol himself was promptly seized. Politicians, lawyers, and judges had the busiest Sunday ol their lives iesponding to calls for help from thus * arrested, and hundreds of prisoners were later released when they had proved they were law-abiding citizens. Mr Russell has scored one off Mr Whalen, New York’s commissioner, who, in’ the first week-end he took office, obtained no more than a few paltry hundreds when he. too, cast his drag-net over the city allotted to bis