CLAIM on behalf of BALDWIN ET AL. DOCKET REGISTRY NO. 9 Syllabus 1. In claims involving mob violence, international responsibility was found to rest upon a combination of (a) insufficient police protection, (b) improper police action, and (c) lack of prosecution. 2. Damages for personal injuries were allowed in 10 cases, ranging from $250 to $5,000. The facts upon which each award was based are stated in the opinion. 3. One claim was rejected on the ground that the "evidence is ambiguous and unconvincing, and seems to indicate that his [claimant's] injuries arose out of a fight with the police in which he was the aggressor ". SUMMARY OF FACTS All the persons injured in the present case, except Harry D. Baldwin, were American soldiers. They were injured during a riot in the Cocoa Grove section of Panamá City on the night of February 13-14, 1915, during a carnival celebration. to At about 12:40 a.m. on the morning of February 14, 1915, a slight disagreement occurred between several American soldiers and a group of negroes, who appear have been annoying the soldiers by playing various military calls on a trumpet. There was one Panamanian policeman in the immediate vicinity of that occurrence, whose intervention seems to have temporarily ended the 177402-34-21 311 difficulty, although it probably engendered the feeling of resentment which, encouraged by the subsequent actions of the police, led to serious developments. About 15 minutes after the above-mentioned incident a fight involving civilians and soldiers broke out in "Josie's Saloon", which was on a corner nearby. Lieutenant Edgerly, in charge of an American soldier patrol stationed at the Santa Ana police station, at once proceeded to the saloon and quelled the disorder there. No serious injuries occurred at that time. In the meantime, however, a crowd of some two or three hundred natives had gathered in the intersecting streets, near the corner. When Lieutenant Edgerly emerged from the saloon, he was met by a barrage of revolver shots and stones forcing him to reenter the saloon, which he promptly left by another door. Before Edgerly had left the saloon, a mounted Panamanian policeman had ridden down Pedro de Obarrio Street, through the assembly of American soldiers, his horse apparently knocking down one or more of them. Certain of them followed him to the police station, in front of which a large crowd of Panamanian citizens had collected. These soldiers were thereupon separated from the civilian crowd by the military patrol and withdrawn from the front of the police station. When Lieutenant Edgerly emerged from the saloon, the second time by way of the alley, he found three American soldiers undertaking to defend themselves from attack with .22 caliber rifles, which they had taken from a shooting gallery on Pedro de Obarrio Street. Edgerly seized these rifles and turned them over to the local police. He then, with his patrolman and certain noncommissioned officers whom he ordered to assist, formed a cordon across Pedro de Obarrio Street and began to force the soldiers and American civilians up the street, away from the mob. At that time, about eight or ten Panamanian police appeared and started towards the soldiers. They were stopped by Edgerly and urged to go back and control the Panamanian crowd, who were firing revolvers and throwing stones at the Americans back of the cordon. The policemen appeared then to have successfully obtained control of the natives for the moment, but they soon disappeared, leaving the cordon and the unarmed soldiers to the mercy of the mob. The mob thereupon advanced upon the soldiers, firing revolvers and rifles and wounding several of them. Edgerly, finding his men who numbered about one hundred, under this heavy and increasing fire, ordered the soldiers to withdraw around the corner into 20th Street, thence to B Street and on to the Canal Zone line, half a mile distant. During their withdrawal the firing of highpowered rifles of the kind carried by the Panamanian police, continued. The United States alleged that during the half hour which elapsed after the cordon was formed on Pedro de Obarrio Street and before the soldiers were ordered to withdraw the shots that were fired and missiles that were thrown by Panamanian civilians and policemen caused injuries to various soldiers. The Panamanian police, it was contended by the United States, not only failed to control the mob but actually participated with the civilians in firing upon and attacking the American soldiers. Moreover, no police reserves were ordered from the Central Police Station, half a dozen blocks away although that was requested by the police officer in charge of the Subpolice Station La Victoria. The United States submitted evidence to the Commission to show that the entire police system in effect at that time was generally inefficient and subject to political change and control. During the early stages of the disorder in Pedro de Obarrio Street, one wounded American soldier was carried into a saloon called the Panama Athletic Club, which was at the head of the street. When the shooting began the doors of the saloon were locked, and the soldiers and civilians within remained there for some time. After Lieutenant Edgerly withdrew with the soldiers from Pedro de Obarrio Street the police and the mob surged down the street, broke in the windows and doors of the Athletic Club, and forcibly entered. The police bayoneted one of the soldiers, maltreated others, and drove them, defenseless, at the point of bayonets, into the riotous and infuriated crowd storming the saloon outside. Certain soldiers who were asleep in the club were kicked and hit by the policemen with the butt ends of their guns, dragged into the street, as were the others, and then beaten and stoned by the mob. Several of the claimants were injured and wounded in this phase of the disorders. One of the claimants stated that he was taken outside by a policeman and turned over to the mob, which assaulted him, dragged him to the police station, again beat him, and left him lying in front of the police station. He was said to have been shot in the back of the head by a policeman while attempting to reach the police station for shelter. Certain of the claimants were alleged to have been dragged along by the police while being kicked, stoned, and beaten by the mob. When Lieutenant Edgerly had succeeded in conducting the soldiers to the Zone line, he obtained an automobile and returned with two Zone police officers to the Cocoa Grove district. He reached there in time to find that a mob had gathered, among whom were at least 20 Panamanian policemen armed with rifles and bayonets. The chauffeur drove through the mob, stopping about a yard from two soldiers who lay on the ground, apparently dead. The mob were said to have been kicking and mauling these two soldiers in the presence of the police without interference from the latter. When the car was stopped to pick up these men, the mob stoned it, and Edgerly was hit on the head by a stone. The two men in question had been dragged or forced out of the Panama Athletic Club and left to the mercies of the mob. Several claimants were shot and assaulted by policemen outside the area of the rioting. In some instances these soldiers were ordered out of coaches in which they were peaceably riding, arrested without cause, and shot, clubbed, or beaten by policemen and civilians. The United States adduced further evidence to show that many soldiers, who had been brought to the police station in a wounded and injured state, were not properly cared for, or allowed to be taken to hospitals, and, in some instances, were subjected to further maltreatment in the station. Lieutenant Edgerly found this condition when he arrived at the police station, and almost at once succeeded in having the injured men taken to the hospital in a police wagon. In support of the claims, the United States filed over 1,100 pages of evidence, the major portion of which constituted the testimony taken by the authorities of the United States Army in the military investigation made immediately after the riot. The United States contended that the Panamanian authorities did not conduct an adequate investigation for the purpose of apprehending and punishing those who had clearly committed criminal acts against the American soldiers during the riot. A sumario, or investigation, was instituted the day following the occurrences and continued intermittently for a period of two years or until February 17, 1917; but it appears that many available witnesses who could have testified concerning the facts and the participants, were not called. The Panamanian officials called only 35 witnesses, of whom 19 were policemen. The testimony of 173 soldiers which had been taken by the American authorities was not accepted as of any value to Panama until after the persistent urging of the American Legation, and then it was not made a part of the official record of the investigation. The Panamanian investigation closed without any results other than the charging of a native policeman with the wounding of a Nicaraguan servant girl. He died before he was brought to trial. The United States sought reparation upon the same legal bases as those advanced in the claim of Charlie R. Richeson et al., Registry No. 7, ante, p. 253, viz, inadequate police protection, wrongful acts of the police, and failure |