THE THIRD DEGREE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5179, 16 September 1927, Page 4

THE THIRD DEGREE.

U.S.A. POLICE METHODS.

SOME ASTOUNDING ALLEGATIONS.

In view of the sensation over Sacco and Vanzetti the following article on “The Third Degree and Crime,” by A. C. Sedgwick, in the New York Nation, may be found interesting:—

What happens in the detective bureau is nobody’s business but the policeman’s. But, once I happened to be in a down-town police station when S;ome detectives brought in four prisoners whom they had captured after a hold-up. Due of them had been shot several times in the back of the neck. The blood poured from his wounds in rivulets' . He groaned, sobbed and denied everything to a group of uninformed policemen who had gathered around him as he sat on a bench in the back room. An ambulance doctor came in later and took him to th© hospital, where he died. The other three men, dapper in cheap clothing, with dumb, roving eyes, were ushered into the detectives bureau by the big-jowled detective who had captured them. Other detectives followed. They Could not miss the show. I was a young police reporter, full of enthusiasm. I, too, wanted to see the show. On account of the unusual excitement I made my way into the bureau unnoticed. The door closed. I was in the room in all about five minutes.

The newspapers later said that the three men were questioned, and admitted not only what they were caught doing, but all sorts of “ stickups ” in the last six months. They admitted everything with which the detectives charged them.

Here in this little room the 'questioning and answering takes place. The prisoners stand ip a row. .They are turning their hats around in their hands nervously. They look at their inquisitors, now at a loss, now defiant. They say the revolvers found in their car were not theirs— they do not know how they came to be there. Perhaps a good lawyer could have disproved the possession of the guns. But this little court, like every other little court in! the 80 odd police stations in Greater New York, knows no counsel for the defence. Justice is the policeman’s business here, and so is punishment.'

The detectives must have a “ clean” confession. They know the .prisoners shot at them in the chase which followed the hold-up. They think the same men did the “ jobs ” wb ich ai' e still on the books unsolved. They “have the goods, on them,” biut, the men refuse to talk. The detectives must make them talk —must * go to work on them” till they do. TORTURE BEGINS. One detective takes a piece of rubber hose, which is part of the equipment of the detective bureau, and is

favoured for use because its leaves no marks. Another takes oct his blackjack. Others grab anything—blackjacks, revolvers, night-sticks. “I seen you lyeforo,” bawls a deflective. “No, sir,” the prisoner answers. The detective strikes him. This is the signal. The “shellacin” hus started — blow r after blow from the rubber hose, black-jacks, and night-;sticks. The prisoners fall to the floor. The blood pours from their faces-. They spit and cough blood. detectives, still in a white rage, look at them. The door opens. A young policeman

in uniform pokes his head in. “You fellers is easy with ’em,” he l says. “I & that so ?” roars a detective, and kicks a prisoner in the face, pulls him to his feet, props him agalpst th,e desk, then with the butt end of his revolver makes a gash in his head. The. three prisoners go to the hospital. If it were asked of any official source what happened to these men it would be said that they received their injuries resisting arrest, or perhaps that the “sid'ewalk came up and hit ’em.” Policemen are supposed to use only th at force which la necessary in the .effecting of an arrest. Hut force, -third-degree methods, are necessary, the policeman believes, to himself, -especially, for by beating a prisoner he is n'Ot showing his authority, but he '^ as a chance to get from the prisoner con ~- fessions which may win him public”' ty and promotion. The tjiird degree known to all who have associated with policemen, but it is one of those things which are winked at and tolerated. Who can prove to a judge - 1 that a prisoner has fallen victim to violence in a police station, wheq all the witnesses are policemen ? Once in a while someone who is neither a crook nor a policeman learns of what goes on in this little court and torture chamber. The wellmeaning sentimentalist decries weep? a over it, makes a plea to the’ polio b commissioner perhaps, Qt z refuses ko sit on a jury in a criro'inal case, b relieving that the priF oner has bexm driven through fore/, to a confession by the arresting detectives. 'The hard-boiled law- an d- Or der- specialist says the crook' s deS erve all the punishment the po ] ice can give tirem. The crimin' olog i St says - there is nothing to b e done for the criminal but glandule r ad j US tment and psychoanalyse g And all the wh j le the big etec ' .tive who knows the crook is a ; a * J’ solves the problem by “giving h’ m the lumps.” It must be added: ’ >vhat joy he takes in it!

THIEF TO GATCH A THIEF. i The detective is not the manhunter of fiction. As a general rule, he is a man of neither superior knowledge nor cunning. He differs from the t ruck-driver and the piano-mover only tn one respect. He is clothed with authority. He has no greater knowledges than his supposed 1 psser brethren—no greater learning. The detective’s main chance for sue ‘.cess lies in his m iquaintance with ch arncters of the u! nderworld. He mus it know the low dives, "gin mills," and i pool rooms in his district, not only 1 because the - crook hangs out in such places, but becaiij se it is there he me ikes the acquaint tance of men who nr jay be valuable I as stool pigeons. ' rhe greater fanriS ia’rity with low lif e the more profljj; lent the detectives. Society expaatfc the detective to I MB

in his frontline work of combating crime. Those three men who were brought into the down-to.wn police station and given their “shellacin” were caught red-handed. With the aid of a shyster, schooled in legal loopholes, the three men might have got away scot-free had a jury and judge alone decided their fate. Although the law forbids it, the treatment they received from the detectives may act as a warning to other offenders. But criminals are seldom caught red-handed. Most arrests are made, after a tip to the police by stool pigeons. They have taken to “squealing” on their brothers to ensure better treatment for themselves at the hands of the detectives. They are often paid betrayers. They are too degraded to hold to the truth. They give hearsay as information. It is to their advantage to lie. As, the detectives nearly always work on information given them by stool pigeons they are all too likely to convict innocent persons in their little cour in the police station. And, besides, since the detective’s job depends; on his accomplishment, it is a temptation to convict one whom he merely suspects and to extort a confession at any price. Often the detectives “give out the lumps” because of a personal grudge, due perhaps, to race prejudice. ‘You Guinea! You Jew !” they bawl out. After each epithet comes' a blow' with a rubber hose. If it is not nationality it may be manner of speech or personal appearance. “I don’t like th© colour of his eyes/’ I heard a detective say once, “so I made ’em black. Thei police abuse the right they have assumed to hold court and to punish, and by the practice they show themselves to be without justice. Also, they make a great practical error. Policemen, by virtue of their own methods, appear to the underworld as a bad lot, as bad as any crooks. As representatives of law and guardians of society they instil into the class of offenders contempt of law and hatred for society. The crooks believe them no different from themselves —they jusjt happen to be on the other side of the, fence.