The right of a citizen to order the arrest by a policeman and without warrant of anyone disturbing the peace by making derogatory remarks about Jews in a public place has been upheld in a decision of the California District Court of Appeal.
The case began on Feb. 27, 1949 in the dining room of a Bakersfield hotel where a man named Jim Hill was making defamatory remarks about Jews. Jack Levy who was sitting nearby demanded that Hill cease his remarks, but this only brought forth further eruption and Levy went out of the restaurant to find a policeman. During the time he was gone Hill continued his anti-Semitic remarks.
When Levy returned with the policeman, he exercised his right of a citizen to make the arrest. Hill was held for an hour, released and later brought to trial on a complaint filed by Levy. A jury returned a verdict of not guilty, therefore Hill sued Levy for false arrest.
A lower court found in favor of Hill and awarded him $600 in damages, holding that in not arresting Hill immediately, and in going for a policeman Levy had unnecessarily delayed and forfeited his right to make an arrest under a penal code provision entitling a private citizen to make an arrest for a public offense committed in he presence.
In his appeal to the District Court, Levy pointed but that when he threatened to call a policeman Hill told him to “call a whole bunch of them. Calling one would be a waste of your time and mine.” Levy contended that this convinced him that he could not make the arrest himself. The appealed court ruled that the arrest had been made “within a reasonable time and as soon as the circumstances permitted” and reversed the lower court’s award of damages.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
