The Early Presence of Law and Order

Racine Police in 1880

Although many people may think that Law and Order has been around since early civilizations, the police style that we know and see today in our societies did not become present until the rise of the Industrial Age. Before the Industrial Age the main use of the police was to maintain control over runaway slaves. With slavery abolished, policemen needed to find new identity to remain a factor in the community. As the sudden advancement of technology brought many benefits to the United States,  it could also become a danger. Misuse and a lack of attention could cause the new innovations of the world to cause major chaos among the society.  Just like the world around out the Police was in desperate need for changes and new leaders to help revamp the protectors of the people.


With the new developments in the field of technology work in the Industrial Age became more sedentary. Many workers were let of at 5, giving the citizens and early escape from the jail of a work day. This allowed more people to go home and enjoy leisure time. My father has always told me the more time I have on my hands, the more trouble I can get myself into. This was the case in this time of advancement and prosperity. Public disorder, drunkenness, and prostitution became popular offenses in this time period. The average number of arrests because of these offenses per officer was around 30 a year. Without the hard days of labor constantly shoved in the faces of the American citizens there was not much to do. Therefore mischief was a popular activity at the time.

A scene of Bootlegging. A common crime in the Industrial Age.

With the popularity of alcohol and a rise in wealth and free time, many saw the opportunity to abuse the system. Bootlegging became the center spotlight of crime and was taken up by many of the mobsters. As many mobsters tried to control the entire gambling. As the mobsters began to overwhelm the crime in cities, the police had to come up with a strategy to counter the acts that were beginning to corrupt this prosperous period of time. Special squads were created to focus on fighting these specific crimes. They were called vice squads(Policing in America). The were a specialized squad and helped take down the mobsters, like Al Capone. These squads were eventually aided by the ban of all alcohol in 1920.
distribution of alcohol in a city, it led to many other doors such as narcotics, prostitution, and

A replica of what a 1919 police car looked like.

August Vollmer

With almost any topic you can think of, there is always one person whose contributions can be noted as the most influential. For police innovation August Vollmer, the Chief of Police from Berkley California, was the guy. He renovated almost all aspects of police work, and made Law and Order as efficient as the machines which were being created at the time. With the rise in automobiles there was a need for a traffic system to help keep roads and drivers safe and functioning, and to help enforce drivers from abusing their vehicles. In 1915 police began to use motorcycles to help chase down speeders. He created the first system of traffic systems, and helped utilize them in the community(Policing in America). He also was the first equip piece vehicles with radios, which helped patrol cars and cycles to be more efficient with their duties. He worked in one of the first crime labs, and was president of the Association of Police Chiefs. This was soon to be called the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1908, to help fight against drug, sex, and alcohol trafficking. His contributions to police work were more than helpful to the progression of police work.

As the technology in the industrial age progres
sed, the use of machines not only helped the major tycoons, but also the police. Henry Faulds created the method of fingerprinting, which still to this day is a weapon of law and order(Policing in America). This machine allowed the policemen to now investigate crime scenes, and still have a chance of catching the criminal. Before this the only possible way for an arrest to be mad and justice to be served was if there was a witness present.

Secret Service in 1905

In the time period of 1880-1920 many specialized groups of men were created to protect the government, and the people off the US. The Secret Service was founded to help protect the government against counterfeit and fraud. In 1902 they were reassigned to serve and protect the president(Policing in America). A special group of policemen were chosen to investigate railroad crimes and robberies, as the railroad industry boomed during this period of time. The railroads were and easy target, and were a necessary asset to the economy at the time.

The Industrial Age came with many changes to the economy, cities, and social lives of the citizens with Untied States. As they changed, the police did too. It is human nature to find solutions and adapt to new environments. It is to no surprise that the men in blue changed with their society, as they continue to do today to help protect and serve the people of this country.


Citations:
Britannica
Public Service Photo Collection 
History of Policing in America
Bartollas, Clemens, and Larry D. Hahn. Policing in America. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. Print.
Police in the Early 20th Century
LAPD 1900-1925

Urbanization and Organized Crime

During the late 19th and early 20th century people in America were moving from small towns and rural areas to large cities.  These cities grew rapidly due to large amounts of immigration, and this created poor living conditions and crowded spaces.  Crime became a way for immigrants to make money and they quickly formed large organizations.  Without a developed police force and corrupt politicians gangs during this time were able to grow in size and power rapidly.  The rapid urbanization in America lead to the development of organized crime which in return had a significant impact on urban life.
Organized crime was not created during this time period but did change drastically.  Prior to 1870 smaller gangs such as the Whyos.  The Whyos were mostly made up of petty thieves and would commit crimes such as punching someone for two dollars, breaking a bone for ten dollars, or even killing someone for one hundred dollars.  The whyos finally dissolved around 1890.  During the late 19th century large waves of immigrants were moving to the cities and creating gangs.  These gangs were much more organized and were able to absorb the smaller gangs that had existed previously.  NationalGangCenter.gov compared the development of gangs during this time period to the progress of commerce.  Changing from individual stores to large stores with many different items available.  Gangs such as the five points gang and the Monk Eastman Gang from New York quickly became powerful and were involved in counterfeiting, drug trade, prostitution, and racketeering.  Antonio Vaccerelli "Paul Kelly" was the leader of the five points gang, Kelly grew his gang by creating youth groups as a front for getting kids involved with the gang.  Monk Eastman leader of the Jewish gang in New York trained kids as pick pockets at the age of 10.   These gangs were very organized and able to commit crimes on a much larger scale.
The Gangs also affected the politics and social landscape of cities.  Both Eastman and Kelly wanted protection from the law in New York, so they began working with the corrupt politicians in Tammany Hall including Boss Tweed.  With Backing from both of the largest gangs in New York the Tammany Hall political machine was very powerful.  The gangs would have members at the polls to intimidate people into voting a certain way, they would also stuff the ballot boxes with fake votes.  According to Historical Crimes by Wallace Edwards it was not uncommon for there to be three times the number of votes in the five points district than there were registered voters.  In return the gangs were able to commit crimes without prosecution.  Paul Kelly was arrested and should have gotten twenty years in prison but by the time of the trial his case had been manipulated so greatly that he only got 9 months.  While sentencing Kelly recorder Goff said " You should have been convicted of highway robbery.  Instead you were only convicted of assault."  This partnership between the gangs and politicians helped shape city politics and urban life during this time period.
The way people viewed certain groups of immigrants was shaped by gang violence during this time period.  In Los Angeles the Chinese immigrants had created gangs of their own called tongs.  The Hip Sing tong and the On Leong tong were the most powerful tongs at the time.  They would often fight for control over opium dens and brothels.  The Hip Sing Tong had paid off most of the police force and the On Leong tong had political ties because they had rigged election of the district attorney.  In 1900 a shootout started between the gangs in a tenement a woman and two children were injured, the police wrote this off as a gambling dispute and the woman and children were just collateral damage.  The LA Herald, a Los Angeles newspaper, posted on July 19 1907 that seven men had recieved threats stating that tong wars were imminent, the newspaper claimed that the gangs had brought in the dreaded "Hatchet Men" and it said that any Chinese person found bearing arms could be arrested.  The Chinese gang violence furthered the anti Chinese sentiment that already existed in this time period.
The rapid growth of cities between 1870 and 1915 lead to the development of large organized crime groups which eventually impacted city politics and the way people viewed immigrants.  The large organized gangs created during this time period are similar to gangs in America today.  The impact of gangs on cities during this time period helped shape urban life into what it is today.


Sources:

Absolute Crime

 Information on political impact

National Gang Center

Information on development of gangs

New York daily news

information on chinese gangs

tammany's control of new york

information on monk eastman gang and paul kelly

online textbook

Background information on urban life

Los Angeles Herald 

Primary source on tong wars (July 19, 1907)

Paul Kelly

Tammany Hall

Chinese Gangsters

tenement housing

Monk Eastman

Peggy Wallace Kennedy

Today during our Martin Luther King Jr assembly Peggy Wallace Kennedy was our guest speaker.  Her father George Wallace was the governor of Alabama three times and ran for president  four times.  Our speaker told the story of how her father ran for governor as a racial moderate and lost.  He then ran as a racist and won.  Peggy Wallace Kennedy was twelve years old when her dad gave a speech that encouraged segregation, and she was sixteen when her dad stood on the doorstep of the University of Alabama to try and stop the desegregation of the school.  She talked about how her parents never discussed racial issues with her at home and how she felt like she needed to uphold her families reputation.  She eventually realized that she could express her own beliefs and ideas against racism.

Philanthropy Bibliography

http://www.insidephilanthropy.com/guide-to-individual-donors/bill-gates.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/bill-gates/9812672/Bill-Gates-interview-I-have-no-use-for-money.-This-is-Gods-work.html

Oakland Ghost Ship Fire

Jackson  Vest

1) It was a warehouse that served as a sanctuary for collective artists.

2) There was an electronic dance party held in the Oakland Ghost Ship Warehouse. All of the plugs lead to the same socket and it overheated and caught fire. 

3) There was no direct path from the stairwell to the exit leaving many trapped from the flames of the blaze.

4) The fire's are similar in the tragedy of the losses and how it affected the communities. The fires similarly both only had one exit. 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/12/us/oakland-warehouse-ghost-ship-fire.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/us/california-oakland-fire-ghost-ship-warehouse/

Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, of Oklahoma, was originally named Wa-Tho-Huk, which meant Bright Path. Him Thorpe lived up to his name as he managed to succeed in almost any athletic event he attempted. He was a natural born athlete and considered on of the greatest in the 20th century. His name is thrown into the conversations with some of the greats like Jesse Owens and Babe Ruth. He continued to succeed in ametuer sports, until his breakaway event in the 1912 Olympics winning multiple medals. He was soon welcomed by the US for his contributions to the success of the nation, also he was a benchmark for the developing in Native American equality. Although, the country in the turmoiled state with the racism and hate that surrounded the white americans, they found a technicality. They stated since he was paid to play ametur baseball that he was to be stripped of his medals. This did not set back his career, as he continued to succeed in playing in the professional baseball league and finishing his career with a .327 batting average, which is very impressive. He also joined what was soon to be the NFL, and with an astonishing career, he was soon too be electing the first president of the league. As his career declined because of age, he found it hard to make money and suffered the hard tragedy of alcoholism. This was not what defined Jim Thorpe, as he was nominated after his death as "The Greatest Athlete for the First Half of the Century". While winning medals in the Olympics, getting inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, and playing multiple sports professionally I think it is safe to say he is an accomplished Native American. He changed the face of how Americans can view Indians, by succeeding in almost everything he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe

This site gives basic information about Jim Thorpe. I feel it will be good to give his heritage, and his background to help explain why he was considered an accomplished Native American.

http://www.espn.com/classic/biography/s/Thorpe_Jim.html

This is Jim Thorpe's biography on ESPN Classic's. It is a site for acclaimed professional athletes and their accomplishments. I feel like this will give me the facts of his accolades throughout his athletic career.

http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/15/redskin-and-all-american-jim-thorpes-malleable-symbolic-significance

This article oversees Jim's entire career including acting, and explains why he was a benchmark for native american equality. I feel like the ideas in this article will help me build strong opinions that i can back up with factual evidence.

Alexander the almost Great

Question 1- Does Alexander deserve to be called "great"?
  Alexander "the Great" was a great general for his time. Alexander the great otherwise known as Alexander III of Macedon took over for his father Phillip after Phillip's assasination. Alexander conquered the entire Persian empire, something no other man had ever done, or ever did. Alexander also did this without losing a single battle, making this feat even more impressive. The Persian empire, despite having great numbers for their military, had no great generals on the levels with Alexander. A persian general, Memnon, died of illness early into Alexander's career, so Alexander never truly faced a test, and was always facing inferior generals. The tactics used by Alexander were revelutionary, he liked to have a phalanx which is a formation of infantry soldiers where each soldier is carrying  a spear around 20 feet long. These soldiers created a wall of spears so if enemy soldiers came near, they would not survive. These tactics, as they had not been seen before, would strike fear into the enemy, already giving Alexander and his army an advantage. Aleander loved to flank his opponents while using the phalanx to distract his opposition. However, one has to think would he have won a battle against the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, or Julius Caesar? Is Alexander really great? The answer to this is simply no, if there was other generals with the stature of Napolean Bonaparte to test himself against then the answer might be yes, but since he never faced a truly great force, there is no proof that he is great.

Mahatma Gandhi 

Question 2- What can one learn about society based on their views of greatness?
           Greatness is a tricky word to define, according to dictionary.com, great has an astounding 23 different definitions. Society sees greatness as a word to describe someone that has done something wonderful, but to not do it by vicious means. Society appreciates someone that is ethical in the way they run things. Such as someone like Gandhi, who held peaceful protests, instead of leading people to violence to fight for their indepenence. This shows society does not value violent actions and is a peaceful group. It seems as if when someone dies they want to be rembered for something, and every single person wants to be great in some way. So society is also a very selfish and greedy group.
Question 3- Do time and distance impact someone's popular perception?
      Time and distance do alter someone's popular perception, someone could do something great today, but still not get as much recogniton if it happened 20 years ago, or even 2000 years ago.

Moon landing

The farther away, time wise, the greater the feat seems to people. In the case of Alexander "the great" he has his reputation enhanced, because of the vast amount of time from when he was alive. If Alexander were to do his accomplishments today, then he would not be talked about nearly as much. In terms of distance, the closer an event happened to someone, the more likely they are to celebrate, or if they are associated with the person(s) that accomplished the feat. An American is much more likely to celebrate another American landing on the moon than the Russians going into space.

Works Cited

"Alexander the Great." Alexander the Great. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

"Alexander the Great." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/575648?terms=alexander+the+great>.

BBC News. BBC. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml>.

Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

Fox, Robin Lane. Alexander the Great. New York: Dial, 1974. Print.

Green, Peter, and Peter Green. Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography. Berkeley: U of California, 1991. Print.

"How Great a General Was Alexander?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

Moulton, Carroll. Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students. New York: Scribner, 1998. Print.

Sienkewicz, Thomas J. Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2002. Print.