THE “THIRD DEGREE”

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1929, Page 16

THE “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 be undertaken by the National Crime Commission of that State, writes Percy S. Buller, in the Daily Telegraph. The evidence may be such that steps may be taken to prevent its further practice. Police officials have always denied resorting to physical punishment, but the recent report of the Prison Association of New York declares there is ample evidence in City and State gaols to warrant the suspicion, if not the conviction, that men are beaten and even tortured in attempts to extract statements. In the same report is severe criticism of a statement by NewYork’s Police Commissioner that “one full-awmed punch, skilfully directed, is worth more than a dozen warrants.”

That the “third degree” has been, and still is, used unofficially by the American police, and 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 are heard demands for its suppression. The 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, the looseness of the law in protecting the rights of citizens has permitted the growtli of a practice that has no rival elsewhere in Star Chamber methods.