Posted on 01/23/2013 3:32:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
In the Chicago gangster's day, it was easier for criminals to get their cases thrown out of court. A 1945 Atlantic article describes an American justice system much more lenient than our own.
In the waning days of World War II, two police officers were patrolling the streets of Chicago when they noticed a suspicious-looking vehicle. They stopped the car and found that it was loaded with stolen goods. The men inside had just committed a robbery; one of them had an existing criminal record. But when the case came to court, the suspects were set free: The judge declared that their arrest, search, and seizure had been illegal.
This story appeared in an outraged 1945 Atlantic article by Virgil W. Peterson, former director of the Chicago Crime commission. In "'Case Dismissed': The Unreasonable Leniency of American Justice," Peterson complained that criminals enjoyed too many legal protections. They could wriggle out of a court sentence simply by showing that they'd been stopped without probable cause -- no matter how guilty they turned out to be. Even Al Capone used these tactics, Peterson wrote, quoting the deputy police commissioner of Chicago:
I've arrested Capone a half dozen times, and each time found guns on him. The same goes for a hundred other gangsters around town. But what happens? The minute you get them before a municipal court judge, the defense attorney makes a motion to suppress the evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
That dude looks clean and articulate.
I’m guessing it had a lot more to do with being able to get away with paying off everyone from the cop on the beat to the judge in the courthouse. Plus they were tough times and Capone could supply products that were hard to get and illegal otherwise.
Also it was a lot easier to threaten the lives of officers, lawyers, and judges back then.
I saw an interesting program. Al Capone goes by the name Stanely now. It was concluded it’s likely that he uses that name because the Stanely Theater is where he was arrested.
A lot of people were working for the gangs at the time.
My great grandfather smuggled booze from Canada to the US for the Purple gang at the time. And on the other side of the family my grandparents were feeding and giving the Purples a place to sleep for the night midway between Detroit and St Joseph.
I have no problem with case getting tossed for technicalities.
The law is able to pierce the Bill of Rights all too frequently and there should be protection afforded to all citizens, including miscreants like Al Capone.
The Law Enforcement community is busy running around telling the rest of us how to live and constantly looking for opportunities to inject their moral superiority into our lives and control us.
It’s not all LEO but, it’s pervasive enough that checks must be barriers to their over reach.
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