Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1875 — Burglars’ Rights. [ARTICLE]

Burglars’ Rights.

Certain ; radical questions concerning the duties a id immunities of citizens in protecting life and property from the depredatioi s of professional criminals have been discussed in connection with the recent prompt and admirable administration ot justice upon the two burglars whose lives paid the forfeit of their - crime when discovered plundering Judge Van Brunt's house at Bay ilidge, lx>ng Island. In connection therewith a letter of inquiry was addressed to Mr. Charles O’Conor, in which the queries were propounded as to whether there is “ a law on the statute books in regard to the ‘ challenging’ of a burglar by his intended victim before firing on him, even when in the act of plundering his goods ?" and whether the law would “justify a person in firing on and killing a burglar simply on seeing him endeavoring to effect an entrance into his house at night r’ Mr. O’Conor replies as follows: “ I see no present occasion for considering the technical questions stated. Men who devote their lives to housebreaking and theft as an occupation can hardly be said to have any rights which others are bound to respect. Their habitual pursuit justly condemns them to outlawry. At least such is their condition while prowling in the night-time within or around the dwellings of their

intended victims. When, in the attempt to execute a felonious enterprise, they happen to be slain by the iamily whom they are seeking to plunder, public justice will institute uo fastidious scrutiny. No one will inquire whether all 'he forms or ceremonies were observed which some ancient‘law-giver «*r modcm enactment for ‘ that case made and provided’ may have discreetly suggested, whatever may Ire the striqt law applicable to the case; and, whatever exact duty might enjoin, no magistrate will commit the slayer to prison, no grand jury Will indicr them nor will any District-Attorney prosecute or petit jury convict.. If, indeed, any one in this line of official authorities could be found to act adversely the next in succession would be apt to repudiate his doings, or if a concurrence of the whole could be imagined, ending in a conviction, it is very certain that no Governor would hesitate tin instant in awarding to the accused a safe deliverance by his dispensing power. . M “ The Van Brunts were justified in point of morals. Tlieir race—the Holland Dutch of New York—rarely fail to meet with appropriate action any emergency appealing to honor and bravery. Let us not enter into any nice criticisms upon the manner of their achieverfiept; it was just and beneficial; applause is their due. All honest men will accord it frankly and in unstinted measure.”