Heightened Security in 1908 Equaled Sixteen Extra Officers

Currently the Denver municipal authorities of 2008 are busy securing the city for the Democratic National Convention next week. In preparation for public protests, mammoth traffic tie-ups and any threat to convention security, the Denver Police will add an additional 1,500 officers from around the state to double the size of the current force. They'll also be getting help from the Secret Service and the FBI. This environment is in stark contract to the city in 1908 when the Denver Police hired sixteen additional officers to help out. But perhaps that was because in '08, it was not uncommon for men to take security issues into their own hands.

The Denver Post (July 7, 1908) reported that the Tammany delegation, traveling by rail from New York to Denver, was angered by a pickpocket who lifted from one of their men a wallet containing $500 and train tickets. Once the theft was realized, an alert was sent out, and all passengers and crew on the train were searched. The wallet was recovered, and the owner received the return of his $500 and the train tickets as well as "$8.35 in silver, a Waterbury watch, and the gold fillings in the thief's teeth."

The train was passing through Ohio when the transgression occurred, so the Tammany fellows held on to the crook until the train had "reached a point in the wilderness about eighty miles from anywhere and then they threw him into a river." The Denver Post reporter concludes: "The next time that a pickpocket starts out to rob a delegation of prominent Democrats he will skip the men from Tammany Hall."

www.americacomesalive.com

Comments

[HansUnfeit]

Now that's when Democrats were Democrats!!