POLICE BRUTALITY

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1931, Page 6

POLICE BRUTALITY

METHODS IN AMERICA. ; j REPORT OF COMMISSION. : Washington, Aug. !. A horrifying tale of systematic .police ; brutality and a 10-years’record of illegal, law inforeement by means, of the barbar** ou& “third degree” methods are . disclosed by the report of the Natioiial. Commission on Law Observance. What it terms the “'naked, ugly of lawlessness in law enforcement described by the commission. . ' The commission urges the President, Mr. Hoover, to pass an amendment of the Constitution, if neecssaiT, to secure much-needed reform. Favourite methods used-by tile police ■ in a score of the larger cities, it says, are severe beatings with fists and sandba<rs handcuffing mon upside down while spraying them with tear gas, forcing them into cells with diseased prisoners, 'and forcing prolonged sleeplessness for five or six days. In Miami, Florida, a man accused of killing his wife was chained to the floor of a/ mosquito-infested cell, with the ■scalp of hie dead wife at his feet. ■A negro,'charged with murder, while ciupneS to, the floor, had water . poured.; up‘’ftm : nostrils, nearly strangling ’ .-.-A- V:. ’■•!' '. j-'i'.■ -'■l-'C'if .'■'■•■ ’■•■O' -'d: ,£• SfcV- a J-'-.'-;’, • J,'.i r-.'.p ■ ‘ a?