In the 1890s New York was the place that had it all: financial empires, manufacturing, entertainment, the ultra-rich and the destitute poor, as well as crime, prostitution, casinos, corrupt politicians and police under the watchful and corrupt eye of Tammany Hall. Spurred on by the public denouncements of vice by the Rev. Charles Parkhurst, the people of New York wanted a reformation of the city's evil ways. Enter a young Theodore Roosevelt as a new police commissioner. This was a Roosevelt before San Juan Hill and his "big stick." Roosevelt is determined to clean up all that is evil in the city, especially the police who turn a blind eye to the criminal goings-on...for a price. TR does his job well, too well. The people wanted things cleaned up, just not too much. When they lost the right to a cold beer on Sundays, police stations where the homeless could sleep at night, and entertainment at private parties the rebellion against the reformers began in earnest. What started as an effort to clean up the crime problem became meddling in the lives of generally law abiding persons. Soon the people and Roosevelt's own Republican Party turn against his puritanical attitudes and ways are found to get off the Board of Police Commissioners--by getting him out of town and into Washington, D.C. as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The puritanical zealot Theodore Roosevelt is quite different from the boisterous, outdoorsy, jovial man he is depicted as being during his years as President of the U.S.
No comments:
Post a Comment