THE BATON AND ITS POWER

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 February 1930, Page 18

THE BATON AND ITS POWER

rpo a number of people there is something fearsome about the word baton. It conjures up pictures of savage policemen charging into scattering mobs —charging with teeth clenched and gleaming. It creates a vision of skulls broken, limbs smashed and bleeding—disorder, panic, suffering. Yet how many who, reading of baton charges by the .police against the ‘ ‘miners’ army” on the coalfields, draw these vivid -pictures, know exactly what a baton is? How many have actually seen one? How many have handled one?

If you were asked whether you would sooner have a blow from a policeman's baton or a 14-stone policeman’s naked fist, which would be your choice? You probably would choose the fist —till you were reminded that though there have been more than one instance o'f blows delivered with the gloved fist, there is but Ohio {recorded instance ''in New (South Wales' of a person having died as the direct result of a hit from a baton, writes an ex-policeman in the ‘‘.Sydney Sun.” And that man, it was showp at the inquest, was possessed of what some medical men term ‘‘an eggshell skull” —a skull the bone of which was considerably thinner that that of the normal man.

You must remove from your mind any thought that the baton is something in the nature of a solid wooden weapon liable at every blow to crack bones. It is nothing of the sort. In the New 'South Wales baton there is no wood at all—it i 9 made either of rubber or of leather. In the latter •type, which weighs under lib, and is about a foot long and an inch thick, there is a steel spring, which, covered with cord binding for about four inches to make the handle, extends for about half the length of the baton. Beyond it is a rubber core, and the end is weighted. Bound the spring are bound tightly six layers, in all, of lc'ather. On the end of the hhndle is a wrist strap. The baton is not rigid, but springy. :So constructed, the baton is a handy weapon of defence —or attack. It is not heavy, but it is well-balanced. It can be fitted comfortably into a special pocket. It makes an excellent thing with which to .prod persons in the ribs when they do not “move on please”; quickly enough. 1

Effective, But Not Deadly

Brought down heavily on the shoulder of an offender, it reminds him .more quickly than anything else that the law ( is a weighty power. Brought down on xi man’s skull it gives him a nasty jar approaching concussion which usually puts out of his mind all thought of further argument, and gives him an uncontrollable impulse to take to his heels. it. is possible that a direct blow from a baton would break a man’s collarbone, provided the blow were severe enough. Usually, however, the blow is aimed, with painful accuracy, at the shoulder, where it makes its presence

felt severely, and leaves a contusion that is a. tangible reminder for some davs of what has happened. The old' solid hardwood baton, up to two feet long, has long been abandoned in New 'South Wales, though it was used very freely by the special constables who were sworn in to deal with rioters during the police strike in Melbourne a few years ago. Many 'a hoodlum went • home with a broken scalp and! a lump like a pigeon’s egg on his head, and' an inward resolution never again to defy the law —openly. The New South Wales baton is a very different weapon from that. .The British police, however, still retain the long wooden baton, which, in a special trousers pocket, reaches nearly to the

l constable's knee. Of course, a hefty young policeman, i swinging a baton by the wrist strap, : could deliver a blow which, if it landed on a man’s head, might cause eoneus- ! s ion; but the spilling of blood would : be unlikely. ‘Though in the police force, as anyi where else, there are bound to be a few , hotheads, the majority arc fully aware . of just what damage a baton can do, i and they may be trusted to use their ■ 'batons with discretion. When they . are ordered to charge an unruly mob, i they are told to strike an the shoulder. The average policeman is not a vin- ■ dietive person with a lust for blood, i He does not wantonly hurt anyone. In . many eases his sympathies, in times of political disturbance, are with those he • has to attack. Yet he has hi» duty to ' do and' his orders to obey, and if in obeying them he injures someone, he is probably almost as sorry as the hurt ; party. But —do not trade on a constable’s good-nature when he has a baton in his hand. ...