“THIRD DEGREE"

Evening Star, Issue 20252, 13 August 1929, Page 7

“THIRD DEGREE"

AMERICAN METHODS Exposure of alleged brutal “ third degree ” methods employed by the New York police to force confessions from accused people is to bo undertaken by the National Crime Commission of that State (.writes Percy S. Duller, in the ‘ Daily Telegraph ’). The evidence may be such that" steps may bo taken to prevent its further practice. 1 Police officials have always denied resorting to physical punishment, but the recent report of tho Prison Association of New Yoi-k declares there is ample evidence in city and State gaols to warrant the suspicion, if not the conviction, that men arc beaten and often tortured in attempts to extract statements. In the same report is severe criticism of a statement by Now York’s Police Commissioner that ,: ono full-armed punch, skilfully directed, is worth more than a dozen warrants/’

That the '* third decree ” has been, and still is, used unofficially by the American police, aud is even countenanced by the judiciary in some cases, cannot be seriously denied, but it is only when some particularly brutal case comes, to notice that there arc heard demands for its suppression. Tho police, while declaring that_ it is necessary at times to use persuasive methods to secure evidence of crime, declare that these are more in the direction of moral suasion than of physical force. . Police systems throughout the world, it is recognised, have recourse occasionally, to these methods, but in America, and particularly in. New York, tho looseness of the law in protecting the rights ot citizens has permitted the growth of a. practice that has no rival elsewhere in Star Chamber methods.