Street Robberies Rise in Under-Patrolled Everett

Saturday night holdups in the northern end of the city are quite the proper thing, and when Mr. and Mrs. Smith meet Mr. and Mrs. Jones on Sunday morning the first greetings are: 'Were you held up last night?' So far they haven't resulted in much more than ruffled feelings to those held up as the would-be desperadoes appear to have been mere boys. Somebody is going to get killed though pretty soon. Citizens are not going to submit to this sort of thing much longer and we opine that the boy bandits or some citizens who resist will get filled with lead. This is the logical result of cutting down the police force to a handful of men. We haven't men enough to properly police Hewitt Avenue, and the residence district is left absolutely unprotected. Of course, the argument will be raised that we never would have enough men doing police duty to patrol all the residence districts. That is very true, but if the force were at its normal strength two or three men could be detailed to the residence district. The knowledge that those officers were somewhere in the residence district and the possibility of their being in their immediate neighborhood would have a deterring influence upon the boldness of these young criminals. It was a foolish proposition to reduce the force because the police didn't have the usual number of drunks to handle under a 'dry' regime. Now that the citizens have so generously contributed to the city's funds, adequate police protection should be one of the first things granted.