THE POLICE COLLECTORS.
The political power finds its agents. They are of necessity, the police. Willing spirits are found.
The guardians of the law and public safety are hired out by the political kings to collect their tolls from their sycophants and vassals.
Chicago policemen, high and low,—we venture to say eighty per cent of them,—are today by virtue of the collection and tribute system the confederates of every species of criminal, of every exploiter of every known kind of vice.
They aid, abet and allow these law violators to thrive.
Vice and crime must pay its tribute to the police. The police must turn over the bulk of the proceeds to their political masters. No criminal can continue in his nefarious business without paying the price. It is called Police Protection.
That is the blind. In reality it is Political Protection. The police are but the body guard, the secret service of the corrupt—
Directorate of Ten.
Under Police Protection, for so many dollars per day, according to the nature of the crime-business being carried on, every form of vice flaunts itself in the face of Chicago’s 2,000,000 inhabitants and its thousands of country visitors.
It is no secret. Chicago knows. But she has failed to observe the reason, and to open her eyes is the mission of this book.