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A QUEER CASE.Enrron Hi i.i.ktin:—In your issue of the I lilt instant appeared an item headed ‘‘A queer ease,” in which au unfortunate Chinaman seems to pose as the queer part. Not only does the item misstate the reason given for his plea of guilty in l»is ntlldnvlt, but it says that when arrested he was dressed in “gay Oriental costume, but the next morning appeared in Court witli an old coat wrapped around him,” (leaving it plainly to be inferred that lie had on no' other garment.) This is a misrepresentation. I do not so much complain of that as of the unjust inference attempted to he drawn to his prejudice from the fact that lie was in different dress when arrested than that in which he appeared in Court. To your reporter it seems queer that even a Chinaman should have a uhangc of clothes, more queer that a Chinaman working at tVainlua should have such change in Honolulu, most queer tiint lie, or any person, should ic surprised at night and dragged to the police station in a dress which modesty or prudence would forbid him to wear at other times; but I shall not by serious argument attempt to show that such things are not most extraordinarily queer. It also appears queer to your reporter that the defendant’s affidavit is unsupported by other evidence, and though lie seems to have taken special delight in calling me “ignorant, etc.,” i may venture to suggest that the truth of the affidavit, unless rebutted, stands admitted. Hut Mr. Editor, there is a queer side to this ease which appears to have escaped the attention of your reporter.1st. ft does not seem queer to him that a police man is charged by a man under oath with a serious crime, and bis superior officers simply smile it away, when the air is full of rumors damaging to the efficiency and integrity of the police force of this city. It is not sufficient to say that law breakers are ever ready to prefer such charges to impeach the character of their accusers, for there are notable instances even in tins community of men both in high and low positions against whose integrity there has never been a word.2d. Nor does it seem queer to your reporter that where the customary sentence for having opium unlawfully in possession under plea of not guilty lias been from a tew hours to a few days imprisonment and the lowest money penalty, via., 850 (and even under the old law very seldom over 20 days and 850.) Acting Judge IV. I.. Wilcox, under a plea of guilty, where (leniency is always exercised, with no other apparent reason than that the defendant wore possibly better clothes when arrested than those he wore at the day of trial, suddenly increases the sentence to JO days imprisonment and SCO fine. I do not believe that any of our courts have so far forgotten their duties, us to be inlluenccd by such motives even ill the ease of an alleged opium smoker, and I confidently expect to be apprised of some more subs'.an-tial reason for the Court’s action in this matter which 1 have not, nor evidently lias your reporter ascertained. J. A I.RUUD Maooon.[Mr. Magoon seems to have got a “queer impression from our report of this ease, an impression which the report was not intended to create, and which its wording does not imply. There is no allusion whatever to “ignorance,” nor that such a tiling existed in any way intimated. Mr. Magoon had bettor read that report again.—Ed.]
Newspaper Details
The Daily Bulletin
Honolulu, Hawaii, US
Thu, Dec 13, 1888
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 15 May 2025
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