A Mayor's Indictment

The mess at the Tombs lent special urgency to Mayor John V. Lindsay's impassioned speech before the ABA delegates in St. Louis. Stunned by the jail riots in his city and prodded by Chief Justice Burger's analysis of a crippled judicial system, Lindsay pleaded with the lawyers to help repair the archaic machinery of justice.

In an obvious swipe at the Nixon Administration, Lindsay dismissed the catch phrase "strict construction" and the tough talk of anticrime rhetoric. "No responsible lawyer or politician can abandon the fight to make law-and-order the rule of law that works, instead of a code word that doesn't work," said Lindsay. In his view, politicians and lawyers have patently failed to cope with such practical issues as whether people feel free to walk to a city newsstand after dark, whether police apprehend criminals, whether courts actually convict the guilty, and whether correctional systems really rehabilitate.

For Lindsay, the answers are neither simply stated nor easily carried out. But they are attainable. "Law-and-order works when you open a new narcotics center in New York City, when you hire more policemen in Los Angeles, when you computerize court calendars in Pittsburgh. It's not as dramatic as talking tough. It may not be good political gamesmanship. But tedious, systematic, nuts-and-bolts work is the only way to rebuild criminal justice."

The danger, Lindsay suggested, is that ordinary citizens may soon grow impatient with trusting leaders and lawyers to enforce the law. "That trust is precious, and we are on the verge of losing it. And the real villain is our nation's priorities. Eighty billion dollars for defense and war abroad--less than $500 million for safety in our streets at home." Until the priorities are reordered, said Lindsay, the only realistic outlook is for more crime.

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