DESPOTIC DALE!

NZ Truth, Issue 122, 19 October 1907, Page 5

DESPOTIC DALE !

A SNIFFING, SUSPICIOUS SERGEANT.

What is His Little Game?

Making Criminals of Respectable

Citizens.

There are some police officers wfeo have the unspeakable nerve to believe that they possess autocratic power which makes them superior *o •ordinary civilians (who have to be darned civil if they desire to keep out of the booby hatch) . Judging by recent events, one Dale, who has climbed to the giddy eminence of a Sergeant's stripe, is a person of this description. He it was who figured prominently and ingloriously m the' Patterson loitering case, and more" re- j cently . he has sought further publicity i by an unwarrantable interference with the liberty of a reputable citizeii. On Friday lcist, Joe Ryan, pronittior of the Empire billiard .saloon, m Manners-street, was charged with refusing .admission to the police on the evening of a previous Sabbath. The facts are that Ryan was m bed at 11 o'clock on Sunday night, when Dale came thundering- at his door. A mild and comparatively loud knock would have been quite sufficient, and the reason why. a policeman should endanger the woodwork, lock, and hinges of a "door by thumping it with undue fierceness has nevgr been satisfactorily explained.; At anyrate, Ryan believed that someone outside possibly a person who came into the room occasionally, was indulging m stupid horse-play, and the proprietor resented it. "Wfoen the door-banger informed him it was Sergeant Dale, Ryan was sure it was a "have," and he told the disturber of his rest, whoever it was, that he could stay outside. Dale's name has become a by-word since the Patterson case, and .anybody voluntarily assuming it gets scant attention from most people. THE BAFFLED SERGEANT RETREATED, but returned with a constable, and this time Ryan, who began to think it might be the police after all, arose and admitted them. Dale then charged the proprietor with playing billiards on a Sunday, and proceeded to examine the rooms. The tables were all covered, as they usually are on the Sabbath, and the owner himself was the only person on the premises. Ryan is a man who has been connected with the management of billiard rooms for nineteen years, and during that time it is probable he has never used a cue on a Sunday nor permitted any other person to use one m his saloon ; and when the bumptious bobby made this remark, he was naturally indignant, and spoke very frankly to the sergeant. The real reason of .that objectionable officer's visit to the rooms is still unexplained, for, m the light of Ryan's excellent reputation, which is wellknown to the police, the suspicion that billiards were being played is a "stall," or "blind," or a make-be-lieve assumption to cover the real object of the visit: whatever that may have been. •• Doubtless the. fact that Patterson had rooms, and still has a room, farther down Farish Lane, has | nothing to do with it. There certainly was an illumination m the apartments, a burner m the passage, which threw a dim religious light m the billiard-room, but it is kept going as a precaution m the event of fire, or burglars, or people like Dale, and Dale has probably seen its reflection hundreds of times from his accustomed beat. The allegation of billiard-nlaying could not have been made " from information received.*' as no one has ever played billiards m the saloon on a Sunday, and where j there is j

NO SUSPICION OF AN OFFENCE, there can be no rumor" of one. In the circumstances dubious Dale's presence m the rooms was inexcusable, and that being so the offence of refusing admission, for which Ryan was fined, was actually cr/aated by the sergeant. Surely to goodness, there is enough crime m thje city to enga^p the attention of the sergeant without dragging; respectable residents out of their beds and charging them 'with an offence caused by tfog very visit of the police ! For this; "crime" of refusing admission to the Police, by the way, the Qtaming and Lotteries Act provides a maximum penalty of £100, or three months' imprisonment— a nice thing, truly, to run an inoffensive and law-abiding member of the community into ! Fortunately. however, Magistrate Riddell took a sensible view of the e3.se, and imposed the merely nominal fine of 20s, bat with legal advice and expenses, the experience must have cost the victim £5 or £6. What "Truth" wants to khow is, is this sort of thing going to be tolerated by the public ? If men of respectability and unstained character are to be harried and brow-beaten^ m this fashion by persons of the dunderheaded Dale description, few who have any respect for themselves will apply for billiard-room licenses, or, indeed, licenses of any kind, the hold-: ing of which empowers any fat-head-ed and maliciously-inclined Sergeant of Police to intrude on the privacy or disturb with hysterical d6oi> j banging, or annoy WITH UNFOUNDED ACCUSATIONS, the holder of that license. There are policemen who imagine that the Police Offences Act, the Gaming and j Lotteries Act, and other chapters of ! the police bible, were passed special- j ly to enable the person m uniform to i institute a reign of terror, and to enjoy the gratification arising from pcttv acts of tyranny. Such men are indiscreet, and they often receive a shift until they acquire the wisdom of experience. Constable Turner, doddering Dale's companion m the Patterson indiscretion, has been shifted, "Truth believes, and it should occur to most people with overpowering force that a change of air would DO THE STUPID SERGEANT GOOD also. "Truth 11 frankly asks the ' Commissioner and Inspector of Police'o .-"-.mine '!vkc Jasfc two experi-enci-s of the .iU-v -r^rcct Czar, and (ic;n hey can, that Dolly Dale is a square peg m a round hole.-