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A punning variant of the phrase the long arm of the law (also the strong arm of the law), the phrase the wrong arm of the law (also the law’s wrong arm) is used of any mistaken or illegitimate legal action; it is also occasionally used with no precise meaning, in a purely jocular manner.
The phrase the wrong arm of the law was used as the title of the 1963 British comedy film starring the British actor Peter Sellers (1925-1980), in which three Australian thieves impersonating police officers rob London’s prominent criminals.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase the wrong arm of the law (also the law’s wrong arm) that I have found:
1-: From More Municipal Muddle, published in the Evening News (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Saturday 19th November 1881 [page 4, column 3]:
It is said that a case is pending in the law courts, at the hearing of which some of the truth of the affair may possibly be elicited. If the facts are as alleged, it may possibly occur to some people that an error has been made, and the wrong arm of the law set in motion.
2-: From the Daily Herald (London, England) of Thursday 27th July 1922 [page 1, column 3]:
WRONG ARM OF THE LAW
Hand on a Shoulder, a Chase and a Sequel
From Our Own CorrespondentLeicester, Wednesday.—Whilst talking to a friend in a refreshment house in Leicester, Ernest Betrens was surprised to find a hand laid on his shoulder, and a voice asking him to “Come outside.”
The owner of the voice said he was a policeman, and that it was his duty to see there was no breach of peace. “But we can square this,” he added.
Betrens challenged the man, who made off.
After a chase, Frederick George Wright, a clerk, was captured, and he was fined £5 to-day for pretending to be a policeman.
Wright said he did it to prevent a row.
3-: From the Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, Lancashire, England) of Tuesday 29th June 1926 [page 12, column 4]:
THE LAW’S WRONG ARM.
A distressing mistake was made in the first case at the Winchester Assizes, to-day, a spectator being mistaken for a prisoner on bail and hustled into the dock.
The individual was actually arraigned and called upon to plead before the officials discovered they had the wrong man.
The indignant spectator was released, amid laughter, in which Mr. Justice Roche joined.
4-: From Life (New York City, New York, USA) of Thursday 6th January 1927 [page 6, column 3]:
The Wrong Arm of the Law
First Lawyer: What are you looking so sour for, Cavendish?
Second Lawyer: After I got all through getting my man acquitted on the most eloquent plea I’ve ever made, I find out he was really innocent.
5-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Baer Facts, by the U.S. journalist and humorist Arthur ‘Bugs’ Baer (1886-1969), published in The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) of Wednesday 4th July 1928 [page 7, column 1]:
Among famous clubs which were hermetically sealed by the law’s wrong arm were the Golden Flea Bag and the Insomnia Gardens.
6-: From the Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania, USA) of Tuesday 6th May 1930 [page 2, column 6]:
NO INJUNCTION AGAINST COUNCIL OF DURYEA BORO.
Judge W. A. Valentine by a decision yesterday afternoon denies the motion for a preliminary injunction in the suit of William Moran, a taxpayer, against the Borough of Duryea and certain borough councilmen, in which plaintiff asked that certain appointments of borough officials be declared illegal and void. In denying an injunction the court closes by saying:
“[…]
“The borough code provides a definite and specific method for determining the validity of borough ordinances and a careful consideration of the plaintiff’s bill leads us to the conclusion that a preliminary injunction being emphatically ‘the wrong arm of the law’ should not be granted as complainant’s rights is manifestly not free of doubt.”
7-: From a review of The Pride of the Force (1933), a British comedy film starring the British actor Leslie Fuller (1888-1948), published in The Northern Star (Lismore, New South Wales, Australia) of Monday 22nd January 1934 [page 2, column 3]:
Leslie Fuller plays the dual role in “The Pride of the Force” which comes to the Star Court Theatre shortly. Bob is a wonderful athlete and the real pride of the force, while brother Bill is a country yokel with wits scattered like the wide open spaces. Bill is envious of Bob’s success in the police, and when the latter joins the circus to be near the bareback rider with whom he is in love, he accepts the longed-for chance, by stepping into Bob’s uniform in answer to a summons to take up a position at the county police station. Bill as the “wrong” arm of the law, gets into plenty of trouble and the fun comes fast and furious.
8-: From the Western Mail and South Wales News (Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales) of Monday 9th April 1934 [page 8, column 3]:
THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW
Generally speaking, the police of this country are such an excellent and sensible body of men that it is a pity that, from time to time, some over-officious or over-zealous officer blunders in a manner embarrassing to authority and not creditable to the reputation of the force for intelligent discretion. It is not at all surprising that the case of the unemployed Welsh miner who was locked up in Cardiff Gaol because he had failed to pay a paltry fine imposed upon him 21 years ago for a minor offence of obstruction has created indignation. According to the strict letter of the law the police were doubtless acting within their duty, and it is only right that people should remember the tradition of the long arm of the law which, sooner or later, is supposed to arrest all evil-doers. But the case of a man fined, apparently without his knowledge, for a small offence, who served throughout the War in ignorance of the fine and was told afterwards not to bother his head about it, is clearly not one in which the crude severity of the law should have been allowed to operate even for a moment.
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