A Seattle Mob Attacked a Deputy Marshal. The Paper Wanted the Police to Answer for It.
After Deputy Marshal Gagnon was set upon by an excited crowd, critics charged that Seattle officers were too cozy with the lawbreakers — and this editorial demanded that heads roll.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The police department of the city has been subjected to a swell amount of criticism during the past few days, because of the indiscreet talk of some of the officers and, too, of their apparent sympathy with lawbreakers.
When Deputy Marshal Gagnon was attacked by an excited crowd on Sunday, [the record here is partly illegible] each disregard of law and each show of sympathy with lawlessness on the part of members of the police is so plainly gratifying to the mob that it cannot be overlooked.
Somebody has authority over the force to improve its discipline and to see that it is maintained. Every citizen demands that offenders be brought before the law — not that the law be ignored or defied. If the facts are as stated, the officers who were present at the time of the outrage should be summarily dismissed from the force, and other officers who have been advising lawlessness and neglecting their duty should not be long in following them.
“If the facts are as stated, the officers who were present at the time of the outrage should be summarily dismissed from the force.”
In 1894 Seattle was a raw young city where the line between the police and the crowd was dangerously thin. The charge that officers nursed 'sympathy with lawbreakers' instead of protecting a federal marshal is the same argument Seattle still has about police accountability, crowd control and who the force actually answers to.
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