A day in the life of a police officer in Jim Crow New Orleans: 1917

NOLA.com ^ | 9/17/17 | James Karst, NOLA.com

[BBell]

A journalist from the New Orleans Item trailed a patrolman for a full day in the winter of 1917, providing reporting on what amounts to a century-old police ride-along -- perhaps the first by a newspaper reporter in the city's history. The move came on the heels of several widely publicized police scandals, including the suspension of several officers who pawned their service weapons in 1916 and the killing of police Superintendent James Reynolds by one of his subordinates on Aug. 2, 1917. And questions were being raised publicly about whether rank and file police officers were doing enough to earn the $75 per month they were paid.

But those controversies weren't the biggest threat to the reputation of the New Orleans Police Department, according to the Item. Vaudeville was to blame.

"Does a New Orleans policeman earn his pay?" the paper asked rhetorically. "Or does he loaf luxuriously between infrequent arrests?

"The vaudeville policeman invariably haunts saloon doors or munches sequestered peanuts. That has fostered the idea that real policemen do that sort of things (sic), too."

The unidentified reporter was assigned to follow 1st Precinct Patrolman Henry Borges on foot one day in December of 1917. Borges' shift lasted from the morning into the early evening. He worked mostly along the riverfront and in what's now the Central Business District. The Item's report offers candid insight into the New Orleans Police Department's strategies for controlling crime a century ago -- and its heavy-handed treatment of black people several decades into the Jim Crow era.

Borges and the reporter arrived at the 1st Precinct station at 6:40 in the morning to get ready for the day. Borges donned his freshly brushed suit and his polished shoes and badge. His bore No. 192.

At 7 a.m., the pair reported for duty along

[BBell]

Back then you could get arrested for being black and unemployed. A interesting article that shows how much things have changed but you would not know it by reading or listening to the MSM, institutes of higher learning, or radical black types.

[PGR88]

Rudy Guliani only did 25% of what these cops did - and was able to clean up NY City.

[Larry Lucido]

The morning briefing ended with “And hey. Let’s be careful out there!”

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Meanwhile, a few years before, the New Orleans newspapers were screaming about the homosexuals dancing in the streets, and demanded the LAW against them be enforced.

[Larry Lucido]

Jim Croce Laws:

You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
You don’t mess around with Jim

[Vigilanteman]

Remember that it was a “different kind of story when Big Jim hit the floor”?

[PAR35]

I had to look it up. Across Canal from the French Quarter, stopping a block from St. Charles; and going almost as far upstream as the new bridge. A pretty big area to patrol on foot.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Today if a cop doesn’t allow a heroin dealer to shoot him he gets charged with murder if he defends himself and a white football player who makes pretend he’s black kneels at the nation anthem.

[BBell]

At noon, Borges and the reporter went to the riverfront to monitor the black laborers on their lunch breaks. "To prevent trouble, the patrolman mingled among the men, alert to check any display of the manly art," wrote the Item, referring to fisticuffs.

That's pretty proactive law enforcement.