NO PEACE FOR BANDITS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17384, 21 April 1928, Page 14 (Supplement)

NO PEACE FOR BANDITS.

THE CANADIAN REMEDY. I GAOL AND THE LASH. Canada is becoming one of the most unhealthy places in the world for professional criminals, according to the current issue of the Canadian Police Bulletin, which analyses (lie effectiveness of punishment methods now in vogue throughout the Dominion. The lash is the best weapon which Canadian justice has found in its war on crime. “All over the country,” says the Bulletin, “criminal court judges arc making it quite clear that crimes of violence arc to be rewarded not only by long terms of imprisonment, but by that which all criminals dread, the lash.” In Montreal, it is ' reported, Mr Justice Perrault sentenced two men j charged with robbery with violence to j terms in the penitentiary and to receive 12 lashes each. j "The biggest of the two broke down and sobbed convulsively when he heard that he was to be whipped,” the article states. ■ “But he had no compunction whatever about the injuries | he inflicted upon a man he robbed and showed great cunning in luring him to \ a place where he could be maltreated.” | Mr Justice Perrault gave this warn- J ing. “[ want bandits of your ilk to ( know that if they plan to recommence 1 an epidemic of robberies with vio- | fence here they will find the law standing formidably in their path. For >• my own part, as unpleasant as it may | be for me, I shall apply the law in all l its severity—that is to say, that I \ shall not hesitate one minute to pres- jj cribe the lash.” a

j At Sarnia, Mr Justice Meredith im- | posed one sentence of 25 years and 21 el I lashes on a 2i-year-old man, 20 jjt j years and to lashes each on two others tf I aged 20, and 20 years and 15 lashes | on one man 42 years old. All were 1 convicted of an attack on a young | woman after kidnapping her from her | escort. fo Similar sentences are reported from | Toronto and London, Ontario. !$ Summing up the situation, the Bui- j | letin says:—“There is a unanimity of action jjy about this which suggests that the | I men who arc sworn to administer the p | law impartially believe that the hardI cned criminal should not lie c-oddlcd. It: “And it is not necessarily the man!'s i who lias been convicted of several of- j |j I fences who is a hardened criminal. It |j is obvious that there is a growing!® class of men,/ most of them young,!® some of them mere youths, who are | M determined that they will take what! gj they want hv force. To them murder j S 3 is a secondary consideration, the lion- ; jj| our of a woman nothing, the attain- j || ment of their wishes and desires, by j || any means, everything. j “To that state of mind there can : gj only be one answer for the protection of the great majority of law-abiding j $ citizenhood in the State. That it is j|J being given promptly, effectively, and j js| with a due regard for a fair show for j pj those whose conduct makes it neces- I |J sary, must be a source of gratification ! || to those who do not want to see this I ra country Chicagoised.”