RANDOM AT LARGE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 24

RANDOM AT LARGE

ASSESSABLE CRIME

A frightening picture of the future was drawn by the recent comment of the Chief Constable of the York and North • East Yorkshire police force, Mr Harold Salisbury, who said that increasing taxes were driving people to crime. No doubt Mr Salisbury would not have won appointment as the head of a newly-formed police force without a background of experience, and so his comments must command attention. All sorts of ugly possibilities present themselves—a rising crime rate argues the need for more police, which would require additional demands on the taxpayer, which would

accelerate the crime wave. The most dreadful thing about it, however, is the probability that it is going to bp harder and harder to know who is who. Years ago, the criminal, was as easily recognisable as the policeman in his large black boots. Now both sides have gone underground and you cannot know who it is to whom you are talking. It is going to take some getting used to—walking down Hereford Street and wondering which of well-fed gentlemen are master criminals, which their unwitting victims. It could, well be that good old-fashioned honesty

is going to have fewer rewards than usual. A man who applies himself diligently to his business and has an especially good year will, on making a faithfully correct return of ' income for taxation, become a prime police suspect on the basis that if his tax is high, he is a candidate for crime. Who knows where it is all to end? Will we find members of the stock exchange being arrested for stealing bread, or bicycle conversion? In a confusing situation, only one solid fact emerges; the likelihood of present trends being reversed by substantial reductions in taxation is remote.