Probably nothing that has ever occurred in the State has brought out more universal and severe condemnation from the State press than the call sent out from High Point this week asking police chiefs to rush all available police officers to that city to demonstrate how quickly police officers could be assembled in the event of a “riot call” should be sent out. The following are some of the comments.
Statesville Daily
“This sent policemen frm various towns tearing over the highway sin cars at top speed, endangering their own lives and the lives of all others on the highway, not to mention the violation of all speed laws which these officers in the regular course of business are expected to enforce. It was a fool stunt and criminal as well, because no earthly good could be accomplished by the racing. All the officers who violated the speed laws in this fool racing stunt should be sent to jail and those reponsible for putting it on will get what is coming to them if they are mulcted in damages on account of the wreck of the Charlotte car.”
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Hickory Record
“That was the signal that sets many good policemen off on that monumental piece of absurdness that has taken the lives of two Charlotte officers. The idea of grown men, to say nothing of policemen, playing riot in High Point! Nothing could have been more childish than that telegram. Tlhe playful mind that devised that stunt should be given a doll house and tin soldiers the next time he want to pretend there is a riot somewhere. And who gave the policemen authority to violate every known speed law on the statute books? Who is in a position to give them that authority? And what right have they to endanger the lives of other citizens unless the occasin is of dire necessity? Aside from the sadness of the two deaths, there is nothing to be aroused but the most profound indignation.”
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Charlotte News
“Nobody has any right to give a policeman the authority to ignore the laws of th estate when he is out on unofficial business, which this was. The highways are the State’s. They belong to none of the municipalities and even though priority rights in them were owned by the municipalities, the offices of these, excepting when they are duty bound, can not be alloed the privilege of violating the law of the roads at will and random. The law relates that any man, civilian or uniformed officer off duty, exceeding a speed of 35 miles an hour on the roads of the state is arrestable, and punishable. Nobody will question that the officers not only of Charlotte but of every other city who engaged in this piece of tomfoolery, went far over that limit.”
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Morganton News-Herald
“The accident experienced by the Charlotte policemen inth e race to the policemen’s convention in High Point was not any more than might have been expected, and the wonder is that in such foolhardy contest there were not more and possibly more serious accidents. It is absurd and absolutely inconsistent on the fact of the proposition that officers, who aresworn to uphold and enforce the law, including the speed law, would break themselves set out deliberately to break the same law, whether it be in a contest or any other undertaking. The whole plan is one that should have been frowned on from the start, and it is hardly conceivable how the policemen’s organization in the State gave sanction and approval to such a race. It does not reflect credit on Morganton that the Morganton force came second in the race. None of the towns which took part in the contest are to be commended for the participation.”
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Mooresville Enterprise
“Any set of men who are sworn to protect the lives and property of the people and to vigorously uphold the laws of to land, to indulge in such a ‘riot race,’ as participated in one last Tuesday when the police officers of the State were competing for a prize for the fastest time made in reaching High Point from their respective cities and towns and to violate the State law by speeding, menacing the lives of themselves and others, should not be permitted to serve as an officer of the law in any capacity. The town or city officials who would offer prizes and induce other officers to engage in such a contest, should be made parties to the crime and indicted for the injury or death of any or all people who took any part in it. Officers with such little forethought or consideration for the law and the lives and safety of others, should be placed in confinement, that than let run at large. Because a man is an officer, there are no special privileges for him on the statute books, and they are not to be privileged any more than other citizens. The men who are responsible for such a contest should be held responsible for their act, which was a riot within the strict meaning of the word.”
From the editorial page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, Oct. 4, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-10-04/ed-1/seq-4/
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