Talk:Francis Vinton Greene

“THERE was a great to-do some years ago in the city of New York over an ill-omened young person, Duffy by name, who, falling into the bad graces of the po- lice, was most incontinently dragged to head-quarters and "mugged" without so much as "By your leave, sir," on the part of the authorities. Having been photographed and measured (in most humiliating fashion) he was turned loose with a gratuitous warn- ing to behave himself in the future and see to it that he did nothing which might gain him even more invidious treatment.

Now, although many thousands of equally harm- less persons had been similarly treated, this particu- lar outrage was made the occasion of a vehement protest to the mayor of the city by a certain mem- ber of the judiciary, who pointed out that such things in a civilized community were shocking be- yond measure, and called upon the mayor to remove the commissioner of police and all his staff of deputy commissioners for openly violating the law which they were sworn to uphold. But, the com- missioner of police, who has sometimes enforced the penal statutes in a way that has made him un-

popular with machine politicians, saw nothing wrong in what he had done, and, what was more, said so most outspokenly. The judge said, "You did/' and the commissioner said, "I didn't." Specifically, the judge was complaining of what had been done to Duffy, but more generally he was charging the po- lice with despotism and oppression and with sys- tematically disregarding the sacred liberties of the citizens which it was their duty to protect.

Accordingly the mayor decided to look into the matter for himself, and after a lengthy investigation came to the alleged conclusion that the "mugging" of Duffy was a most reprehensible thing and that all those who were guilty of having any part therein should be instantly removed from office. He, there- fore, issued a pronunciamento to the commissioner demanding the official heads of several of his sub- ordinates, which order the commissioner politely declined to obey. The mayor thereupon removed him and appointed a successor, ostensibly for the purpose of having in the office a man who should conduct the police business of the city with more re- gard for the liberties of the inhabitants thereof.“

-Arthur Train “Courts, Criminals, and the Camorra”(1908).

Is this him? If not there is nothing about it in any likely NY Police Comissioner wiki page. Should be looked into; if he was fired because of it. Also, enforcing the law in a way that machine politicians did not like is of interest. 2A01:4C8:1071:6674:C5A:7E23:699E:3720 (talk) 11:31, 1 March 2021 (UTC)