LONDON'S SHAME.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON'S SHAME.

THE CUESE OF THE HOOLIGAN

The question of the day in. the Metropolis should be '"What shall we do to stamp out Hooliganism?" but neither the police authorities, thb magistrates, nor the people appear to be inclined to take up the* matter seriously. Men are maimed for life, women and children grossly assaulted, and policemen kicked into hospital cases day by day, but no really organised attempt to suppress the ruffianly gangs who do these things is made. And if any exasperated citizen writes to the papers pleading for a revival of the era of the cat-o'-nine tails for unprovoked assaults, resulting in physical injury, the so-called humanitarians at once raise an indignant chorus, and try to prove by reams of statistics that flogging- is no preventative of crime. They may figure to their heart's content, but their statistics cannot obliterate our knowledge of the fact that a free use of the eat pretty nearly put an end to garrotting in London, and broke up most of the "high rip" gangs of a. decade ago. That the "cat" has still an influence on the minds of the Hooligans is shown by the fact that though they belt, boot, cudgel and knife their victims, they seldom touch his property. If they so much as took one penny piece from the object of their brutality the "eat" would form part of their punishment, but as the law now obtains a magistrate may not call in the lash unless violence is associated with robbery. That the Hooligan so seldom robs his victim is, I be-

lieve, solely due to the knowledge that if lie adds theft to his crime he will add the "cat" to his punishment if caught. Another cause of the rampancy of Hooliganism is the leniency of our magistrates, a man has been half killed by a gang of larrikins, and a couple of them are arrested and placed on trial. At the hearing- the Magistrate in his most trenchant "manner belabours the prisoners with his tongue, Tells them he means to make an example of them and proceeds u> .sentence them to—six weeks hard labour!

One resuli of the policy of mild sentences, and no cat is a free use oi" Iho knife by the Hooligans, and the class* from which they spring. At one time the buckle end of a belt, and ft pair of heavy boots were all the Hooligan desired in the way oF weapons. To-day he has added a knife, and if his intended victim happens to answer his attack effectively with fist or stick the chances are that the knife will come into play. Last Saturday in the wee sma' hours Police-constable Thompson was stabbed to death in Unionstreet, Whitechapel, by Barnefc Abrahams, an English Jew. Thompson a smart young officer who discovered the last of the "Kipper" murders was on duty at Union-street and had occasion to move on Abrahams and some other semi-drunken revellers who were raising Cain at a coftee stall They went off a few yards and started rowing again, and Thompson once more intervened. Abrahams apparently turned nasty, and the constable attempted to arrest him, but what really happened no one apparently can say for certain. There was a scuffle, and Thompson blew his whistle, which brought another policeman (one Brooke) on the scene. As he came up he saw Abrahams and Thompson on the ground, the policeman being smothered in blood, which was welling out of a gash in his neck. Having secured Abrahams and handed him over (o other policemen who had arrived on the scene, Brooke set to work at once to try and stop the flow of blood from Thompson's neck, but without success. The hapless constable's jugular had been severed, and ere they could g-et him to the hospital he was dead.

The prisoner, whose face bore eloquent testimony to the vigour of his victim's dying struggles, now stands remanded on a charge of "feloniously killing.

The previous evening; an elderlywoman named Bott was shot in Limehouse while attempting1 to defend her son from a gang- of youthful Hooligans. Mrs Bott threatened to bring the police down on her son's persecutors, and forthwith one of the youngruffians produced a revolver and shot her in the abdomen. She now lies at the London Hospital in a serious condition, but as yet her assailant has not been arrested.

These are but two of the dozens 0* Hoolig-an outrages of a. more or less serious character that occur in London every week, and we of the respectable classes are beginning- to feel that it is high time very drastic measures were taken to bring- home to the minds and bodies of the ruffianly element the fact that we do not intend that they shall continue their reig-n of terror any longer. , -,