POLICE BRUTALITY.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 921, 5 September 1896, Page 2

POLICE BRUTALITY.

Jumping on the ' Drunks.'

Jubqinu from the revelations made in the Police Court at the instance of Mr J. M. Shera this week, the street conduct of the police force is not in all respects ' according to Bnrke,' though Colonel Hume would have us think the men in blue are angels of light as compared with the average civilian. Constabulary duty is not

always a pleasant one, but some police constables appear to derive their chief enjoyment from the roagh. handling which they occasionally give those who are unfortunate enough to be ' ran in ' by the active and intelligent officers. We have known of instances in which policemen have taken advantage of comparatively harmless 'drunks ' to pummel them soundly for daring to commit the heinous offence of getting intoxicated. But as a rule these cases are never heard of. The inebriate ia generally too dazed in the morning to accuse the constable of having used him roughly, if indeed he has any distinct recollection of how he came by his black eye and bruised limbs in addition to the orthodox swelled head ; and the usual '5s or twenty-four hours ' settles his hash for him. Tho case which was dealt with at the Police Court this week would probably never have been heard of at all had not Mr J. M Shera and several other sharebrokers and business men happened to witness the arrest of the man, J. C. McDonald, for drunkenness. McDonald was a sailor out of work, and sailors on shore are not always the most sober of individuals, or the most orderly when they are not sober. But in arresting him, the constable in question (one W. W. C. Thompson) was undoubtedly proved to have used undue violence. The evidence showed that the constable threw his arms round the ' drunk,' tripped him up, and threw him violently on the street . 'As the man attempted to rise the constable caught him by the throat. The man then raised his head, when the constable dashed it against the tram-rails, causing injuries to the man's face. The man still attempted to rise, and the constable put his knee on his stomach and again seized him by the throat as if to throttle him.' Another witness deposed that the constable ' threw ' McDonald down on the tram-rails and jumped on him, and then bumped his head on the hard metal. McDonald was bleeding from the mouth. The constable put his knee on the man's stomach and caught hold of him by the throat till the eyes nearly came out of his head ' This witness also said he considered that McDonald, though slightly intoxicated, was capable of taking care of himself.

The Magistrate considered the constable was guilty of using undue violence, and no doubt the Police Department will consider his case. The outcome of the magisterial investigation shows that Mr Shera was perfectly justified in laying a complaint against the constable. Had he not done so, and had no one else troubled to take the man's part, the sailor would have received the usual punishment for being ' drunk and disorderly,' and in addition would have had to suffer without redress a seemingly unjustifiable assault which most probably the policeman would have been unable to inflict on him had he (McDonald) been sober. And, anyhow, was the man's offence co very serious as to call for police castigation ? He had, it is true, been imbibing more freely than wisely, and if he was disorderly, as was stated to be the case, he deserved to be arrested. But the constable could hardly have been- so hard pressed as to be forced to throw the man down and half stun him, jump on his cheßt, and throttle him. The man, the spectators say, was not very disorderly, only drunk, and the constable could very easily have got him to the lock-up without showing the onlookers how easy it was to ' knock the staffing' out of a helpless beer-swiller. And, moreover, we do not see that the police need so energetically 'run in ' every person who offers to be ever so slightly ' under the influence.' Unless a drunkard is actually disorderly and making himself a public nuisance, he might very well be allowed to go on his way. Drunkenness, after all, is not such a heinous offence in itself. It is not necessarily a crime which does injury to anyone else besides the inebriate — anyhow, not in the case of this homeless and shipless seaman. We would be the last to attack the police for zeal in the performance of their duty, and the first to defend them when they are in the right, but we cannot shut our ey es to the fact that some members of the police are unduly overbearing and officious in the

force of a battering ram. On one occasion a large and stalwart constable, while arresting a man for drunkenness at the corner of Wellesley-street and Symonds-street one evening, tripped up his man and threw him bo heavily on the road that the unfortunate ' drank ' broke his leg, which sobered him rather suddenly. There are a good many instances of this sort of thing which we could recount if we liked, but we hope that the publicity given to the present case by the Police Conrt investigation this week will act as a deterrent, and cause police constables to remember that though drunkards' evidence will not as a rule be allowed by the Bench to weigh against a policeman's, yet the statements of disinterested spectators will. We know very well that it is difficult for a constable, and especially a young constable, to keep his temper when making arrests of offenders of this class, whose language is often 'frequent and painful and free,' but the first thing to be learnt in constabulary duty is to keep one's temper. If a constable cannot do that, he will not do for the force.

discharge of their duty, and are in the habit of using nnncessarily bevere, and sometimes even brutal force in arresting Buch offenders as drunkards and alleged disorderly persons. We have at the same time seen cases where the police - . man arresting a violent 'drunk and disorderly ' had more than he could do to apprehend the offender, and in such extremities as handicapping a rowdy hoodlum amongst a gang of his friends, the constable deserves, and is often accorded, the vigor, ous support of respectable onlookers. It is the duty of every citizen to aid the police when they really require assistance. But Constable Thompson's had none of these features about it. There was a constable once stationed in Auckland, and now in a Southern city, who made it his boast that no 'drunk ' was ever locked up by him without getting a few stiff ' clouts ' over the head or a kick on the body to remind him of the hard-fisted and big-booted policeman who ran him in. It has been a common thing, too, for prisoners, especially ' drunks,' when brought into the police-station, to be run by the back of their necks into their cells and pitched down on the hard floor with the