Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
When he got alongside the runaway he seized him by the forelock, guided
him dexterously over the bridge, preventing him from running into the
numerous wagons that were on the road, and finally forced him up a hill
and into a wagon-shed. Three months later this same officer saved a man
from drowning.
The members of the bicycle squad, which was established shortly after we
took office, soon grew to show not only extraordinary proficiency on
the wheel, but extraordinary daring. They frequently stopped runaways,
wheeling alongside of them, and grasping the horses while going at full
speed; and, what was even more remarkable, they managed not only to
overtake but to jump into the vehicle and capture, on two or three
different occasions, men who were guilty of reckless driving, and who
fought violently in resisting arrest. They were picked men, being young
and active, and any feat of daring which could be accomplished on the
wheel they were certain to accomplish.
Three of the best riders of the bicycle squad, whose names and records
happen to occur to me, were men of the three ethnic strains most
strongly represented in the New York police force, being respectively of
native American, German, and Irish parentage.
The German was a man of enormous power, and he was able to stop each
of the many runaways he tackled without losing his wheel. Choosing his
time, he would get alongside the horse and seize the bit in his left
hand, keeping his right on the crossbar of the wheel. By degrees he then
got the animal under control. He never failed to stop it, and he
never lost his wheel. He also never failed to overtake any "scorcher,"
although many of these were professional riders who deliberately
violated the law to see if they could not get away from him; for the
wheelmen soon get to know the officers whose beats they cross.
The Yankee, though a tall, powerful man and a very good rider, scarcely
came up to the German in either respect; he possessed exceptional
ability, however, as well as exceptional nerve and coolness, and he also
won his promotion. He stopped about as many runaways; but when the
horse was really panic-stricken he usually had to turn his wheel loose,
getting a firm grip on the horse's reins and then kicking his wheel
so that it would fall out of the way of injury from the wagon. On one
occasion he had a fight with a drunken and reckless driver who was
urging to top speed a spirited horse. He first got hold of the horse,
whereupon the driver lashed both him and the beast, and the animal,
already mad with terror, could not be stopped. The officer had of course
kicked away his wheel at the beginning, and after being dragged along
for some distance he let go the beast and made a grab at the wagon.
The driver hit him with his whip, but he managed to get in, and after
a vigorous tussle overcame his man, and disposed of him by getting him
down and sitting on him. This left his hands free for the reins. By
degrees he got the horse under control, and drove the wagon round to the
station-house, still sitting on his victim. "I jounced up and down
on him to keep him quiet when he turned ugly," he remarked to me
parenthetically. Having disposed of the wagon, he took the man round to
the court, and on the way the prisoner suddenly sprang on him and tried
to throttle him. Convinced at last that patience had ceased to be a
virtue, he quieted his assailant with a smash on the head that took all
the fight out of him until he was brought before the judge and fined.
Like the other "bicycle cops," this officer made a number of arrests of
criminals, such as thieves, highwaymen, and the like, in addition to his
natural prey--scorchers, runaways, and reckless drivers.
The third member of the trio, a tall, sinewy man with flaming red hair,
which rather added to the terror he inspired in evil-doers, was usually
stationed in a tough part of the city, where there was a tendency to
crimes of violence, and incidentally an occasional desire to harass
wheelmen. The officer was as good off his wheel as on it, and he
speedily established perfect order on his beat, being always willing to
"take chances" in getting his man. He was no respecter of persons,
and when it became his duty to arrest a wealthy man for persistently
refusing to have his carriage lamps lighted after nightfall, he brought
him in with the same indifference that he displayed in arresting a
street-corner tough who had thrown a brick at a wheelman.
Occasionally a policeman would perform work which ordinarily comes
within the domain of the fireman. In November, 1896, an officer who had
previously saved a man from death by drowning added to his record by
saving five persons from burning. He was at the time asleep, when he was
aroused by a fire in a house a few doors away. Running over the roofs
of the adjoining houses until he reached the burning building, he
found that on the fourth floor the flames had cut off all exit from an
apartment in which there were four women, two of them over fifty, and
one of the others with a six-months-old baby. The officer ran down to
the adjoining house, broke open the door of the apartment on the same
floor--the fourth--and crept out on the coping, less than three inches
wide, that ran from one house to the other. Being a large and very
powerful and active man, he managed to keep hold of the casing of the
window with one hand, and with the other to reach to the window of the
apartment where the women and child were. The firemen appeared, and
stretched a net underneath. The crowd that was looking on suddenly
became motionless and silent. Then, one by one, he drew the women out of
their window, and, holding them tight against the wall, passed them into
the other window. The exertion in such an attitude was great, and he
strained himself badly; but he possessed a practical mind, and as soon
as the women were saved he began a prompt investigation of the cause
of the fire, and arrested two men whose carelessness, as was afterward
proved, caused it.
Now and then a man, though a brave man, proved to be slack or stupid or
vicious, and we could make nothing out of him; but hardihood and courage
were qualities upon which we insisted and which we rewarded. Whenever
I see the police force attacked and vilified, I always remember my
association with it. The cases I have given above are merely instances
chosen almost at random among hundreds of others. Men such as those
I have mentioned have the right stuff in them! If they go wrong, the
trouble is with the system, and therefore with us, the citizens, for
permitting the system to go unchanged. The conditions of New York life
are such as to make the police problem therein more difficult than in
any other of the world's great capitals. I am often asked if policemen
are honest. I believe that the great majority of them want to be honest
and will be honest whenever they are given the chance. The New York
police force is a body thoroughly representative of the great city
itself. As I have said above, the predominant ethnic strains in it are,
first, the men of Irish birth or parentage, and, following these, the
native Americans, usually from the country districts, and the men of
German birth or parentage. There are also Jews, Scandinavians, Italians,
Slavs, and men of other nationalities. All soon become welded into one
body. They are physically a fine lot. Moreover, their instincts are
right; they are game, they are alert and self-reliant, they prefer to
act squarely if they are allowed so to act. All that they need is to be
given the chance to prove themselves honest, brave, and self-respecting.
The law at present is much better than in our day, so far as governing
the force is concerned. There is now a single Commissioner, and the
Mayor has complete power over him. The Mayor, through his Commissioner,
now has power to keep the police force on a good level of conduct if
with resolution and common sense he insists on absolute honesty within
the force and at the same time heartily supports it against the criminal
classes. To weaken the force in its dealings with gangs and toughs
and criminals generally is as damaging as to permit dishonesty, and,
moreover, works towards dishonesty. But while under the present law very
much improvement can be worked, there is need of change of the law which
will make the Police Commissioner a permanent, non-partisan official,
holding office so long as he proves thoroughly fit for the job,
completely independent of the politicians and privileged interests, and
with complete power over the force. This means that there must be the
right law, and the right public opinion back of the law.
The many-sided ethnic character of the force now and then gives rise to,
or affords opportunity for, queer happenings. Occasionally it enables
one to meet emergencies in the best possible fashion. While I was Police
Commissioner an anti-Semitic preacher from Berlin, Rector Ahlwardt, came
over to New York to preach a crusade against the Jews. Many of the New
York Jews were much excited and asked me to prevent him from speaking
and not to give him police protection. This, I told them, was
impossible; and if possible would have been undesirable because it
would have made him a martyr. The proper thing to do was to make him
ridiculous. Accordingly I detailed for his protection a Jew sergeant and
a score or two of Jew policemen. He made his harangue against the Jews
under the active protection of some forty policemen, every one of them a
Jew! It was the most effective possible answer; and incidentally it was
an object-lesson to our people, whose greatest need it is to learn that
there must be no division by class hatred, whether this hatred be that
of creed against creed, nationality against nationality, section against
section, or men of one social or industrial condition against men
of another social and industrial condition. We must ever judge each
individual on his own conduct and merits, and not on his membership
in any class, whether that class be based on theological, social, or
industrial considerations.
Among my political opponents when I was Police Commissioner was the
head of a very influential local Democratic organization. He was a
State Senator usually known as Big Tim Sullivan. Big Tim represented
the morals of another era; that is, his principles and actions were very
much those of a Norman noble in the years immediately succeeding the
Battle of Hastings. (This will seem flattery only to those who are not
acquainted with the real histories and antecedents of the Norman nobles
of the epoch in question.) His application of these eleventh-century
theories to our nineteenth-century municipal democratic conditions
brought him into sharp contact with me, and with one of my right-hand
men in the Department, Inspector John McCullough. Under the old
dispensation this would have meant that his friends and kinsfolk were
under the ban.
Now it happened that in the Department at that time there was a
nephew or cousin of his, Jerry D. Sullivan. I found that Jerry was an
uncommonly good man, a conscientious, capable officer, and I promoted
him. I do not know whether Jerry or Jerry's cousin (Senator Sullivan)
was more astonished. The Senator called upon me to express what I am
sure was a very genuine feeling of appreciation. Poor Jerry died, I
think of consumption, a year or two after I left the Department. He was
promoted again after I left, and he then showed that he possessed the
very rare quality of gratitude, for he sent me a telegram dated January
15, 1898, running as follows: "Was made sergeant to-day. I thank you for
all in my first advancement." And in a letter written to me he said: "In
the future, as in the past, I will endeavor at all times to perform my