Review: Clarke Hall and Morrison's Law Relating to Children and Young Persons
| Published date | 01 January 1957 |
| Date | 01 January 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X5703000115 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
72 THE POLICE JOURNAL
of
New York's underworld and its leading members.
For
this reason, he is probably
not a very good administrator but is a legend to his men.
We start from the day Phillips joined, when they taught him how to breathe
like a Jap.
It
seems that the common cold is almost unknown among the Japanese
police who have mastered this important art. They taught him how to walk, too.
"Most
of
you walk with your feet pointed slightly outward," says his instructor.
"It
isn't natural to the bones
of
the inside
of
your foot which have to bear the
weight
of
your whole body.
Half
New York calls a cop a 'flatfoot.' " Useful stuff,
this.
But we find ourselves once again realising the fundamental difference between
the U.S. Police
and
our own. The rule
of
law in New York is rule by the gun. No
arrest is made without gun in hand, "although," says one,
"I've
always preferred
the night-stick. You can't miss with a night-stick." If you miss with a gun, you
may hit some innocent person with a ricochet and that is a constant fear. The
terrible figures of violence, robbery
and
hold-up are unlikely to be abated until
the police are disarmed
and
public opinion is solidly aligned against the gunman.
City politics are never far away. Not the Commissioner, but the Mayor howls:
"Break this case,
or--."
One conjures up imaginary visions
of
the Lord Mayor
of
London and the Detective Chief Superintendent of the City
of
London Police.
Justice, too, seems to lack discrimination although the system is not quite so
full
of
holes as we are sometimes led to believe. Some
of
the sentences are savage
by our standards and lead men to suicide rather than face their terms
of
imprison-
ment. There is a delightful moment in court when one Samuel Bonner, aged 70
and hardened pickpocket, was sentenced to 15 years as an habitual criminal.
"I'm
not sure I can make it, Judge," he says, whereupon the Judge leans down
and
says gently, "Well, just do the best you can, Sam."
CLARKE
HALL
AND
MORRISON'S
LAW
RELATING
TO
CHILDREN
AND
YOUNG
PERSONS.
Fifth Edition. By A. C. L. Morrison, C.B.E., and L. G. Banwell. Butterworth
&Co. (Publishers) Ltd. Price, 90s.
This new edition
of
"Clarke Hall
and
Morrison" is a reminder
of
how much
new law has appeared since the fourth edition was published in 1951. Of special
interest to police among the new Acts are the Children and Young Persons (Amend-
ment) Act, 1952, and the Children
and
Young Persons (Harmful Puhlications)
Act, 1955. No prosecutions under the latter measure have been reported and one
must assume that its object has been achieved, although many think that public
opinionstopped publication of
"horror
comics" before the more ponderousmachinery
of
Parliament got under way. The extension
of
s.61 of the 1933 Act to include
children and young persons neglected or illtreated was timely and police all over
the country have been able to make me
of
the new provisions.
As previously, this work is outstanding for its accuracy and comprehensiveness
and earns full marks for the clearness
of
its type and the orderliness
of
its
arrangements.
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