Los Angeles Herald

POLICE MATTERS.
PROCEEDINGS OF YESTERDAY'S MEETING OF THE COMMISSION.
Saloon License Matters—The Pico House Saloon License Revoked—Alameda Street Houses.

The police commissioners met yesterday afternoon in regular session, Mayor Hazard and Commissioners Shatto and Lewis being present. The chief reported progress on the investigation of the application for permit for license of V. Rangaturi. The petition was referred to the chief, the applicant being instructed to obtain the necessary consent of the property holders.

Chief Glass reported on the application of Pierre Etcharte, for transfer of license at 426 North Main street, the Pico house bar, from Pierre Bante. Detective Charles R. Moffatt had investigated the record of the applicant, and in his report he says: "Under the pretended management of the said Pierre Bante, the Pico house bar was conducted in the same disreputable manner as when the license was in the name of P. Ballade, and I do not believe there is any reason to believe that the present applicant, Etcharte, who has long been a bartender and hanger-on around there, would improve the place in the least.

"I do not believe it is possible to have a decent and orderly saloon in the Pico house so long as the said house is managed and controlled by P. Ballade and the crowd he has around him. Under his management the place has become one of the vilest resorts on the Pacific coast. It is frequented by thieves, vagrants, and prostitutes of the lowest order, and scarcely a week passes that does not bring us a report of theft or robbery committed there, and recently we have had at least two reports of brutal fights in the house, in which a number of the drunken hoodlums battered and maltreated some of the degraded beings who support them with their vile earnings. To shut up the saloon in the Pico house would be, I believe, a big step in the right direction."

Commissioner Lewis moved that the application for transfer be denied, and that the present permit of Pierre Bante be revoked. The motion was carried.

The application of R. E. Lee for appointment on the police force was filed.

Anton J. Perry and O. Willenberg were appointed special policemen without pay.

The petition for permit for license at 238 South Alameda street, of Marcelin Eyraud, was referred to the chief, as was that of August Rottenpieler for transfer of permit at Sixth and Olive streets, from B. Osthoff.

The petition for transfer of permit for license at 719 North Alameda street from Rappet & Hion to Jean Rappet, was granted.

The chief sent in $5, received by Officer Goodwin from Robert Golmer for recovering a suit of clothes and an overcoat stolen from one of Golmer's roomers. Turned into the reward and charity fund.

Mrs. Sarah Bonner filed a protest with the commission in which she states that she has leased three houses at the corner of Turner and Alameda streets to parties using the same as houses of ill fame. She declares that the petitions recently filed to have the occupants removed have been actuated by malice, so that it would be unfair and unjust to allow the commission to be used as an instrument of private revenge and vindictiveness. The petitioner further represents that if the three houses are selected as obnoxious, that it will be impossible to rent them for any purpose while they are adjoined and surrounded by notorious houses not included in the petitions referred to. The protest was referred to the chief.

William P. Howland had filed a claim for the $200 reward paid by Sheriff Francis of Arizona, and granted to Officer Steele for the capture of Cusick, the car burglar. Howland alleges that he made the capture himself and turned Cusick over to Steele. The demand was filed.

The usual requisitions were then passed, and council adjourned.