Vagrants or Working Men? The Battle Over Municipal Justice

The police department of the city is very much dissatisfied with the disposition made of petty offenders arraigned in the municipal court. Vagabonds are flocking to the city from all over the sound country and with them many petty thieves and dangerous characters. Many of these have been arrested as disorderly persons, and the police say that on one pretext or another they have been turned loose on the following day by Judge Glasgow. Chief Jackson says this has occurred so often that his men are becoming disheartened and that their efforts to run these worthless characters out of the city are frustrated by Judge Glasgow. James B. Dowd, clerk of the municipal court, says that Judge Glasgow's leniency in these cases was due partly to a desire to give them a chance to leave the city and partly because it was the first time many of them had been brought before him. He did not care to put the city to the expense of boarding them for one to three months. While it may be true that among them are some hard characters, most of them appeared to be and said they were working men out of work.