A LOOK BACK:Don’t mess with Huntington Beach’s reputation or rules

By chance I attended the Aug. 20 City Council meeting and one item on that night’s agenda concerned the look of Main Street.

This item had been submitted by Mayor Gil Coerper concerning the “flea market” appearance of Main Street with its array of sales tables and clothing racks on the public sidewalks.

I thought Mayor Coerper and Police Chief Ken Small might be interested in the following piece of history that occurred in 1923.

Chief of Police Jack Tinsley in August of 1923 ordered merchant displays and display cases of every character along the sidewalks of Main Street be removed at once, as they gave an ugly appearance to visitors who come to our city.

A number of vending machines were occupying space on the sidewalks that impeded pedestrian traffic, and he issued an order that these be moved to effect a strict enforcement of the city ordinance on such matters.

Chief Tinsley also asked the merchants along Main Street to move their goods off the sidewalk to improve the appearance of Main Street.

This week we’ll look at two more incidents that involved our police force in 1923, but could just as well have occurred today in our city.

Our first incident happened on August 24, 1923, when a sheriff’s deputy noticed a young lady apparently asleep at one of the picnic tables under our pier, but on close inspection it appeared the girl had fainted.

The young lady was revived and taken to Dr. Hawes emergency hospital, but not before an out-of-town newspaper reporter saw the incident and wrote several stories in his paper about how bad Huntington Beach was and even went so far as saying that a dope ring was operating in our city and that our police were not doing enough to combat crime.

In his story he inferred the young lady at the pier had been drugged.

These stories were so detrimental to our city’s good name and its police officers, and so infuriated Chief Tinsley, that he issued a complete report on this case.

In the report it was brought out that about 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, 1923, Deputy Sheriff Dowling had noticed a girl at a table with her head lying in her arms who appeared to be sleeping.

The deputy called over two young men nearby and asked if they knew her. They told the deputy that they didn’t.

Deputy Dowling tried to wake the girl and after a few tries the girl opened her eyes, stood up and walked into the ladies restroom nearby.

The deputy called on two young ladies to go inside and see if she was all right.

The girls came running out and told Dowling she was not and he quickly went across the street to O.B. Drug store to telephone for assistance.

Chief Tinsley was notified and arrived at the scene to find that the girl had fainted inside the rest room.

By now H.B. Officers Ray Bradfield and Roy Ballard, along with Dr. Ralph Hawes, had arrived and after a few minutes the girl, Arfa Dooley, of Huntington Beach, began to recover.

Hawes ordered Dooley to be taken to his emergency hospital, but she refused to go.

Over her objections she was brought to the hospital and given an emetic to empty her stomach.

She was also given a little whiskey to calm her down.

All the while Dooley was being treated, Officer Ballard and Gus Schneider remained in the room.

Tests were taken and showed she had not been doped and that there were no drugs in her stomach.

The next day a rumor went around that Dooley had died, but that was not the case, for Dooley was back at work at Sol White’s Laundry.

Further investigation revealed Dooley had had several other fainting spells in the past, including one when a small earthquake rocked our city.

A special committee of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce met in Tom Talbert’s real estate office to discuss those newspaper stories and how they defamed the fair name of Huntington Beach.

Mayor Richard Drew told the committee it was a pity Huntington Beach should be compelled to put up with such false publicity and he was especially anxious that our police be exonerated from the stigma which had been placed upon them.

In the end the only dope found was that of the out-of-town reporter, and our police were completely exonerated of any wrongdoings.

That same week in August, Officer Ballard arrested a youth for speeding through our city.

The boy, Kay Criss, and his parents appeared before Judge Charles Warner to protest their son’s arrest. The boy’s parents charged that Officer Ballard had abused their boy.

After an exchange of words between Officer Ballard and the boy’s father, it was suggested that they step outside for a fight.

Ballard started to accept the challenge, but Judge Warner sternly reminded them that court was in session and they were in his courtroom.

The boy’s mother informed Judge Warner “That policeman scared my boy to death.”

Judge Warner interrupted and told her “He did no such thing. If he had scared the boy to death, the boy would not be here to plead today.”

The boy pleaded guilty to speeding and Judge Warner fined him $10 and hopefully the boy learned you can’t break the law in Huntington Beach and get away with it.