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3 Police Stud.: Int'l Rev. Police Dev. 55 (1980-1981)
The Taming of the Tiger: The Lexow Committee Investigation of Tammany Hall and the Police Department of the City of New York

handle is hein.journals/polic3 and id is 253 raw text is: The Taming of the Tiger: The Lexow Committee Investigation of Tammany Hall and the Police Department of the City of New York Jay S. Berman William Paterson College of New Jersey, U.S.A. Background The Special Committee to Investigate the Police Department of the City of New York was created by the New York State Senate in January, 1894, and for the next twelve months, this body, which came to be known as the Lexow Committee, conducted one of the most exhaustive inquiries into municipal police cor- ruption ever undertaken in the United States. In order to fully understand the significance of the Lexow Committee Investigation, an ex- amination of its historical setting and of the key events which precipitated it would be useful. The remarkable era in which occurred the events described herein has come to be known variously as the Gay Nineties, the Gilded Age or the Flash Age. The decade of the 1890's was a period of excess and flam- boyance. America was emerging as the most powerful, productive nation on earth. In- dustrial exploitation of this continent's great natural and human resources produced im- mense wealth for those who were able to capi- talize on the virtually limitless opportunities provided by an unrestrictive policy of laissez- faire to which government adhered. As one historian vividly describes the spirit of the times: The Gay Nineties were the climax of previous decades, the rollicking close of America's pioneering age. The cream of a virgin continent was being skimmed; bound- less natural resources were being wastefully coined into dollars; and the fortunate pos- sessors spent lavishly and garishly.' This prosperity was widespread throughout the United States. The steel mills of Pitts- burgh, the stock yards of Chicago and the trading vessels of San Francisco catapulted those cities from boom towns into thriving metropolises. However, in no city was the good life more extravagant than in Little Old New York. Manhattan became America's capital of pleasure. Newly-made millionaires from all parts of the country flocked to New York to establish themselves as big spenders. They were warmly received and well-accommodated by enterprising hosts. Theaters, restaurants, and dance halls multiplied and flourished. Other forms of entertainment were provided on an equally large scale. A multitude of policy shops, gambling parlors, brothels, and other forms of vice, including illegal liquor selling and excise law violations, constituted an im- mense volume of illegal activity. Together, all these forms of diversion attracted a large clientele intent on spending large sums of money to gratify their desires. In contrast to, and existing alongside all this wealth and frivolity, was another aspect of New York life. The extreme, abject poverty en- dured by the masses of newly-arrived immi- grants, who crowded New York's streets, formed a striking juxtaposition with the ex- cesses of the nouveau-riche: For all the laughter emanating from the brownstones of Fifth Avenue and the saloons of the Tenderloin, this was the City's darkest age. As New York entered the Gay Nineties, there were no public agencies to care for the eighteen thousand immigrants who arrived in the city each month; no shelters or school playgrounds for the thousands of orphans who wandered the streets; no efforts to pro- tect teenage girls from procurers, small shop-

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