Following sundry clashes with his subordinate officers, and various incidents tha have brought him in much disfavor with his employers to-wit: the Elizabeth City public, Chief of Police Charles A. Gregory may have some tall explaining to do before long, or he may make somebody else explain something, according to the things one hears on the streets.
But not all is speculation and gossip for trouble started right after Night Officer Tarkingtron was dropped from the force about two months ago. Tarkington couldn’t get along well with Chief Gregory, and was accused of having “spilled the beans that the bootleggers had police protection.” anyway, he was dropped off the force by order of the Chief who had been censured considerably ever since he got rid of Officer Seymore, who by the way was considered one of the most efficient, honest, and courteous officers the city ever had.
Already suspected of having been friendly to certain liquor interest, Chief Gregory probably put his foot into it week before last when he quietly dropped Night Captain Winslow to the rank of patrolman and put the young and voluble Officer Harris in his stead. Officer Winslow, who evidences no friendliness for the liquor interests, and who spends little time on the Bowery, carried the key to the evidence case in the police headquarters where the captured liquor is stored. Demoted by the Chief of Police, Officer Winslow was obligated to give up the key to Officer Harris, which causes one observer to ask if Elizabeth City is going to solve the liquor problem by letting the police handle the goods direct.
Questioned by this newspaper, Officer Winslow was loath to make any statement. “The Chief just told me he wanted to relieve me of some of my duties,” he said. “I thought one time I would quit, but I don’t feel like being chased off that way; yet they needn’t think I am going to take graft from the bootleggers, to stand in with the force and hold my job.”
But speculation about the tactics of Chief Gregory has been going on for some time. Strangely enough, he issued orders to Captain Winslow to swear no warrants and to make n searches at night without getting orders from him first. These instructions were handed down to the men, taking out of their hands their authority as officers, and leaving them no more able to make arrests than ordinary citizens. If a boatload of liquor had been moored at one of the wharves, a policeman could not have searched it without going to the home of Gregory, waking him up, dragging him out of bed, and telling him who was under suspicion. Under such a system, it would have been possible for anyone to tip off the suspect and enable him to get away before an officer could serve a warrant.
Not only this, but instances are recalled where certain offenses were covered up, and no one knows how many offenders were turned loose, whether the money extracted went into the school funds, or the pockets of the police. The order to swear no warrants was given by Gegory right after one night in February when Officer Winslow caught W.H. Jennette, L.B. Jennette, J.D. Cropsey, Ira Parker, and an out-of-town man in a poker game, and swore out warrants against them. The defendants fixed up the matter with Gregory, paid for their gambling, Gregory hushed up the affair and passed on the world to Trial Justice George J. Spence, who never gave it to the newspapers.
But what probably directs more suspicion against the police, is their own records, showing the number of arrests made, and amount of liquor seized, by each officer on the force during the past year. City Councilman Phillip C. Cohoon was looking a long way ahead when he passed a regulation requiring a monthly report of the activities at the police department.
. . . .
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, August 22, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83025812/1924-08-22/ed-1/seq-1/#words=AUGUST+22.+1924
No comments:
Post a Comment