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Thursday, May 24, 2018

Editor Suggests Still Operators Are Tipped Off Before Raids, 1931

Editorial from The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, May 16, 1931

A Prohibition Note by William K. Saunders, Junior Editor

I can but believe that there is something decidedly “shady” about the manner of operation of Camden County’s Deputies and Special Officers in conducting raids on liquor distilling outfits. And if as I suspect, the prohibition laws are enforced in all parts of the country as they are enforced in Camden County, I do not blame Europeans for openly laughing at America.

The officers are told of the location of a still and their informant secures from them a promise that they will raid the still immediately. Four or five days later, they visit the still and find little or nothing. A few barrels of mash are destroyed and they report that they have destroyed a distilling outfit. If asked why they waited several days before making the raid, they invariably offer that aged and flimsy alibi: “We were informed that the mash would not be ‘ripe’ for several days, so we decided to wait until it ripened so we could catch the operators at work.”

The truth of the matter is that they wittingly or unwittingly give the operators time enough in which to move most of the outfit, or, at least, to “run off” all the mash on hand, before making the raid. Anyhow, they never catch the operators.

Why do they not destroy stills immediately after being informed of their whereabouts? If, as they say, they wait in order to catch the operators, why do they never catch anyone? Is it not significant that, when these belated raids are made practically all the liquor has been “run off” and much of the distilling equipment moved? Is there not something “shady” about this?

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