Duffy. "Mugging" was all right, so long as you "mugged" the
right persons.

The situation thus outlined was one of more than passing
interest. A sensitive point in our governmental nervous
system had been touched and a condition uncovered that sooner
or later must be diagnosed and cured.

For the police have no right to arrest and photograph a
citizen unconvicted of crime, since it is contrary to law.
And it is ridiculous to assert that the very guardians of the
law may violate it so long as they do so judiciously and do
not molest the Duffys. The trouble goes deeper than that.
The truth is that we are up against that most delicate of
situations, the concrete adjustment of a theoretical
individual right to a practical necessity. The same
difficulty has always existed and will always continue to
exist whenever emergencies requiring prompt and decisive
action arise or conditions obtain that must be handled
effectively without too much discussion. It is easy while
sitting on the piazza with your cigar to recognize the rights
of your fellow-men, you may assert most vigorously the right
of the citizen to immunity from arrest without legal cause,
but if you saw a seedy character sneaking down a side street
at three o'clock in the morning, his pockets bulging with
jewelry and silver! Would you have the policeman on post
insist on the fact that a burglary had been committed being
established beyond peradventure before arresting the suspect,
who in the meantime would undoubtedly escape? Of course, the
worthy officer sometimes does this, but his conduct in that