POLITICS AND CRIME

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27058, 5 June 1953, Page 12

POLITICS AND CRIME

Commission’s Report

InU.S. PROBLEMS SEEN IN CALIFORNIA (From a Reuter Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO. Activities of organised groups of professional criminals have grown to such proportions and their influence has penetrated so deeply into the political fabric of our country that they , must be acknowledged as a real menace to democratic government,” said the Special Crime Study Commission in its final report. “The elimination of the racketeer and destruction of crime as an organised business has become the main problem in the administration of criminal justice in the United .States today.” The professional—and successfulracketeer in the United States is neither an ignorant man nor a desperate nitwit, the commission report concluded. He is a greedy individual who is alert and sagacious and ruthless and persistent. He is versatile and may even have a business that is legal, yet perverts its administration by a technique of violence, intimidation and corruption to reap excessive and unreasonable profit. "The underlying motive never varies,” the Commission reported. “It is always to secure and hold a monopoly in some activity that will produce large profits.” Illegal enterprises that are favoured by the racketeer are gambling, prostitution and narcotics. Legal activities under their influence include the building trades, trucking, the motion picture industry, and even cleaning and dyeing. Trouble in California The professional racketeer has been losing some control in California during the last several years because of the public interest in good government aroused from an expose two years ago by a similar crime commission but the criminal activities and their profit now are being administered by "local operators.”

San Francisco was singled out as one of the major California cities with a major crime problem. This was indicated, the commission reported, by: (1) The continuing operation of bookmaking establishments. (2) The “toleration” of houses of prostitution. particularly if restricted to a particular area and known to be operating in spite of regular raids, and the toleration of solicitation of patrons at bars and night clubs. (3) The use of San Francisco as an area for refuge for the organised underworld. (4) Open display of dice games at restaurants, lunch rooms, cigar stands, and similar business places.

“The conditions should be taken as a warning that the integrity of local government is in danger,” the Commission commented. The Mayor, Mr Elmer E. Robinson, who has control of the police department, did not agree. He dismissed the report and accusations with the statement that the facts related by-the Commission were outdated, and defects noted had been remedied, and San Francisco was a “white spot” in the crime picture although it was a seaport town. Police Chief’s Denial , The Police Chief, Mr Michael Gaffey,. was quite put out when the Commission charged that politics had anything to do with the quality and vigour of law enforcement and vice control in San Francisco. “It’s a lie,” he said in reply to these charges. “The greatest obstacle to efficient local law enforcement today is not weakness of moral character in our law enforcement officials. It is the political pressure and interference to which our Solice and prosecuting agencies are so fequently subjected. "It is far more common for local law enforcement to break down because of political interference with the police and prosecuting agencies than because of corruption In such agencies. More often than not, the police have’ more zeal for law enforcement than do the people who employ them.” An example of political administration of law enforcement as cited by the commission in its review of how Seal Beach, a small southern Californian town, helped finance its municipal costs. , W. L. Robertson, described as a notorious gambler,” built a 150,000 dollars gambling house. Local police were responsible for enforcing antigambling laws. They ignored the Robertson “spread.” Finally, it was closed by the State. The Attorneyr?P„ e SI f .°H nd Robertson had grossed 1,148,000 dollars including 763,000 dollars from an illegal lottery publicised locally in four and a half months He also learned that the City Council had issued the gambler a special licence for a fee of 20,000 dollars paid & advance. Other city fees totalled 13,000 dollars. The total sum was about 40 per cent, of the town’s annual budget.

Acting largely on the basis of this source of income, the City Council had raised the pay of the Police Department, bought a few items of fire equipment, and had slightly lowered the rate, the Commission reported Members added: “This kind of political interference by local politicians with the enforcement of the laws is one of possible ” S that makes or S anised crime