Gambling was found to be prevalent at many places in this section, and only slight effort was made to conceal violations of the law. Under the guise of "clubs" some places were being operated as gambling houses with dice and card games predominating. Other places, apparently with little fear of the police, both conducted and permitted gambling with cards and on pool games. Baseball pools and "policy," as well as betting on horse-race returns, were prevalent.
VI. VIEWS OF AUTHORITIES ON CRIME AMONG NEGROES
Much information was secured from conferences with numerous authorities on crime: judges of the juvenile, municipal, circuit, superior and criminal courts; the general superintendent of police and police captains, former high police officials; heads of correctional and penal institutions; the state's attorney; experts on probation and parole, representatives from the sheriff's office; and social workers having intimate knowledge of crime conditions.
The views of those authorities are an important aid in giving proper interpretation to the factors which cause crime among Negroes, and to the circumstances connected with crime prejudicial to Negroes as compared with whites. For example, the testimony is practically unanimous that Negroes are much more liable to arrest than whites, since police officers share in the general public opinion that Negroes "are more criminal than whites," and also feel that there is little risk of trouble in arresting Negroes, while greater care must be exercised in arresting whites.
The Negro crime rate is exaggerated quite as much by the fewer arrests of whites than Negroes, in comparison with the number of crimes committed, as by the ease with which many Negroes may be arrested for one crime. We have already noted the remarkable discrepancy between the police reports of crimes committed and the actual crimes listed by the Crime Commission. Fewer Negroes than whites escape arrest and prosecution. When comparisons are made on the basis of statistics for arrests and convictions, there is presented, unless proper explanations of the statistics are made, an exaggerated picture of Negro crime.
The views of many of these authorities on various branches of this inquiry are here given:
1. FEWER PROFESSIONAL AND BANDED CRIMINALS AMONG NEGROES
Judge Edmund Jarecki, municipal court:
I know of no built-up organization of Negroes that would have any particular control over criminals.
Judge Daniel P. Trude, municipal court: