Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD

by Bruce Chadwick

Nineteenth-century New York City was one of the most magnificent cities in the world, but also one of the most deadly. Without any real law enforcement for almost 200 years, the city was a lawless place where the crime rate was triple what it is today and the murder rate was five or six times as high. The staggering amount of crime threatened to topple a city that was experiencing meteoric growth and striving to become one of the most spectacular in America.

For the first time, award-winning historian Bruce Chadwick examines how rampant violence led to the founding of the first professional police force in New York City. Chadwick brings readers into the bloody and violent city, where race relations and an influx of immigrants boiled over into riots, street gangs roved through town with abandon, and thousands of bars, prostitutes, and gambling emporiums clogged the streets.

The drive to establish law and order and protect the city involved some of New York’s biggest personalities, including mayor Fernando Wood, police chief Fred Tallmadge, and journalist Walt Whitman.

Law and Disorder is a must read for fans of New York history and those interested in how the first police force, untrained and untested, battled to maintain law and order.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime

384 pages, Hardcover

Published April 25, 2017

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of the book is interesting but the execution is lacking. The timeline is not entirely linear and there is chaotic jumping from one topic to the next, even within the same paragraph, creating a disjointed feeling. Certain issues are brought up again and again with no real progression or resolution. Ominous foreshadowing rarely comes to fruition and is rather baffling.

Chadwick also fails to hide personal biases that make the book seem less credible. At one point he describes the murder rate and then goes on to say that this does not paint the entire picture because abortion is missing from the statistics. He also claims domestic violence murders suddenly appeared from out of nowhere in the 1850s.

The book is really more of a description of crime and politics in the mid 1800s in NYC that could have been written in about 70 pages.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book! Both my husband and I read this one and we both really enjoyed it! As I was reading this book, set in New York in the nineteenth century, I could actually picture it in my mind and got a glimpse into the chaotic disorder of this time before any real law enforcement was in place. The author did a fantastic job of making the history so interesting that my husband and I couldn't help but discuss it multiple times. This is out of my normal reading group and I am so glad that I did read it; it was a very enjoyable read.

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway. This is my honest opinion.

[Sarah W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author leans a little too much into their portrayal of nineteenth-century New York City as a lawless zone that waves of immigrants were poring into. Much of this book is focused on descriptions of crimes that made the news, with a special emphasis on murder and prostitution. The police, who were originally political appointees, were typically not up to the task of maintaining law and order. Eventually, due to structural changes and the development of a professional police force, the tide was turned, but while this book attempts to make this point, the actual narrative keeps getting distracted by riots and more descriptions of lawlessness. Perhaps I'm simply not the right reader for this book, but I didn't care for the narrative construction of this book and I felt like the author failed to make their point.

[Hugh Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished some holiday reading.

Really interesting time and topic, I particularly enjoyed the historic crime anecdotes, flamboyant personalities and descriptions of areas much changed!

What really surprised me was how politicised the early police in NYC were and the role of personal patronage in their appointment. The book did a great job explaining the political landscape and the total mess that interference created. Chiefly the disbandment of the established police force and the creation of an entirely new force on the same day staffed by political appointees of the new ruling party. This results in the ironically titled “Police Riot” (not to be confused with riot police), siege of City Hall by the National Guard and arrest of the Mayor. It’s Shakespearean.

Combine all the politicking with the media and publishing landscape selling public fear and you really do scratch your head and wonder if anything has really ever changed - human nature certainly hasn’t! The author does a good job of explaining this too.

I’ve read some other reviews which are quite critical and while everyone is entitled to their own opinions I feel these are mostly grounded in a misunderstanding of my specialty subject - crime statistics. Some think the author employs stats in a way which furthers a political agenda despite the book being primarily a narrative absent of moralising. Others seem to take issue with what statistics show or that there aren’t enough of them and that the book leans too heavily into slice of life content at their expense. Between evolving counting rules and notoriously inaccurate recording of data - I’m not sure crime statistics are going to be of much use in telling this story. Even now they are known to be inconsistent and very nuanced. Anecdotes at least tell you about the media landscape and how people felt about the world they lived in which in some ways are more useful than accurate stats. I actually thought the author was pretty brazen in their quoting of murder rates and comparative arrest figures.

If you want a good story, that is also non fiction - it’s worth a go.

As an aside it did a great job of contextualising Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York which I will now have to rewatch. Quick googling shows that the story is mostly fictitious but I can now appreciate who the real people and events that inspired the story are. Also learned about lots of household names and how they became famous. Good book, recommend.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an advanced readers copy from Goodreads Firstreads Giveaways, so this review only pertains to that edition.

Having said that, I hope they made significant organizational changes. The book is full of interesting information, but to call it the Birth of the NYPD is kind of misleading. The majority of the text deals with living conditions, crime, and politics in 1840's-1850's NYC. There is no real biography of the NYPD or even an in-depth look at its creation. Even the creation of the NYPD academy gets a scant 3-4 pages of discussion. The remaining chapters are all a mish-mash of anecdotes concerning notable cases or crimes. There is no unifying theme and the chapters do not progress in a linear fashion. Instead, various incidents, decades apart, are discussed.

I can't recommend this book.

[Khizr · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book can be often times repetitive and it is not that well structured often jumping around. The book fail to give me an actual substantial feeling of the time period in the eyes of a person who lived during it.

[Bill Lucey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bruce Chadwick, former New York Daily News reporter, presents a breezy and colorful look inside the New York Police Department in the 19th century, before there was a police force, but just a loose and disorganized group of blundering constables.

In “Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD,’’ readers are feted with some of the bloodiest crimes and horrific murders in our nation’s history, during a dangerous time when gambling, prostitution, crime rings, gangs, and drinking spun out of control.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Chadwick reports, ``there was more gambling in New York in the 1840s and 1850s than any other time in American history until the establishment of legal gambling in Las Vegas a hundred years later.”

Most criminals greased the palms of the constables to look the other way.

Worse still, in the 1840’s, the police didn’t carry weapons, only nightsticks, triggering a number of police injuries.

One of the early reformers of the NYPD was New York Mayor William Havemeyer who in 1845 replaced all the old constables with a force over one thousand police officers with a new chain of command, including police chief, several assistant chiefs, and precinct captains.

The mayor soon appointed George Matsell as the NYPD's first police chief who established a police academy, where officers could be properly trained with firearms, conditioning, fighting, and revolver marksmanship, along with serving the public’s needs, not just criminals

Police officers in New York weren’t equipped with guns until the 1850s.

Mayor Havemeyer, in fact, was the person who coined the phrase, “New York’s Finest,” when describing his police force.

Most fascinating in Chadwick’s history of the NYPD during this time, was the prominent role newspapers played in the eventual establishment of a police force.

In particular, the Penny Press (tabloid-style newspapers) and newspaper magnates like George Gordon Bennett of The New York Herald crusaded for a professional police force. In addition, the New York Sun was one of the early pioneers in police reporting; and a new journal in the 1850s, The New York Times (under the able leadership of its editor, Henry Raymond), began pouring large sums of money to produce the news, including the introduction of a "Police News" section each day, including court news.

Despite some early reforms, corruption remained endemic within the NYPD; and the persistent crime wave wouldn’t show a dramatic decrease until the civil service was established in the 1870s.

Still, as Chadwick points out in his fascinating book, the NYPD became the model for other urban law enforcement agencies throughout the nation in the 19th century, including, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C.

--Bill Lucey

WPLucey@gmail.com

August 31, 2017

[Papaphilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD is an interesting read, but a bit of a misnomer. Well written and well researched, Bruce Chadwick writes the history prior to the formation of the New York Police Department; the chaotic times prior and during the early years of the NYPD. Lots of tidbits, interesting facts and just how ingrained corruption was in NYC at the time. Bruce Chadwick also does a great job of explaining how dangerous city criminal groups ran wild and threatened the stability.

So why only three stars? I actually think this is 3.5 stars and I enjoyed reading it very much. I called it a bit of a misnomer because I think the author spent too much time prior and not during and the right after the true formation of the precursor of the NYPD. His epilogue probably should have been expanded to a much larger part of the book.

Make no mistake, Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD is a good read and gives great insight to the other side of both Tammany Hall, the politics, neighborhoods and gangs.

I enjoyed the reading very much, but wished it was more of the actual forming and not so much as the lead up to it.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. It seems a lot of what went on back in the late 19th century is much like what has happened recently. Favoritism, bribery, gang wars, attacks by police as well as on police were an everyday occurrence. The infamous Tammany Hall ruled the day and influenced elections. "Critics of Tammany charged that the Hall used street gangs to destroy the campaigns of the Whigs, scared Whig voters away from the polls, bought off voters, or, when unable to do that, simply paid election officials to turn in fraudulent reports of Tammany vote pluralities." (In 2016, they simply had someone hack voter machine software.) Fernando Wood, NYC mayor 1855-1858 and again 1860-1862, was forcibly removed from office during his first term because he refused to disband his corrupt Municipal Police in favor of the newly created Metropolitan Police. The NYPD has grown and improved with tough training and accountability for over more than a century. Now if only our politicians could do the same.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A close look at how New York City moved from ineffectual constables to a professional police force. The author discusses the backstory of policing in America, how riots were a major force behind the changes. Most major cities were dealing with riots about almost everything and anything, from abolition to religion to immigrants to religion to the killing of dogs and more.

Constables were poorly trained, mostly unarmed, and badly paid if paid at all. Bonuses could be given for recovering stolen property, but nothing for arrests. This led to private agreements between robbers and constables that did nothing to keep crime in control.

The author has provided an interesting combination of history and crimes, as well as the difficulties in organizing a group of men to meet a higher standard of responsibility and ability. Scads of footnotes that point to many other sources that might be of interest to readers. 3.5 out of 5.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Chaotic” was a good subtitle for this book...it did go through time in an organized linear way, but had different focuses for each decade, which made it difficult to learn about the subject as a whole.
For example, we learned plenty about the press reaction to crime in the 1830s-40s. The book ends in the 1870s, and we haven’t heard about the press for the last 5 chapters!
The end of each chapter was written as a teaser for the next, which felt unnecessary. I already bought the book, you don’t need to convince me to keep reading with cryptic sweeping statements about the state of the times. I still learned something, but was a bit disappointed. It felt as though Chadwick was trying to make the most out of the historic gruesome murders in NYC...that’s not why I wanted to read the book.

[Abby Burrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a little slow at first, but it got more interesting further into the book with the exception of certain spots when it got a little slow again. There were some parts where the author focused on one subject too much to where it repetitive and slow. It even seemed like the book got a little rushed and ended a bit abruptly. I thought Chadwick was going to spend time talking about how the NYPD changed for the better, but at the end of the book crime rates were still high and the police were still corrupt and ineffective. There was no resolution. He pointed out how NYPD is one of the best departments today, but how did they get there? There was a little dry humor here and there which I enjoyed and it's an interesting topic, but all in all I was kind of disappointed.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Law & Disorder: The Chaotic Birth of the NYPD is a gripping historical reconstruction that captures the volatile birth of modern policing in 19th-century New York. Bruce Chadwick masterfully merges narrative history with investigative precision, painting a vivid portrait of a city on the brink of collapse and the flawed yet determined men who sought to save it. Through a meticulous balance of historical fact and human drama, the book immerses readers in an era of chaos where political corruption, race tension, and lawlessness reigned before order found its footing.
It’s an intelligent, fast-paced, and deeply relevant exploration that connects the past to our understanding of public safety and justice today.

[Kimberly Pinzon · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at about 50%.

Considering this is a relatively short (300~ pages not including bibliography, footnotes, etc) it is absurd that over the FIRST THIRD is all build up consisting of the same crime stats repeated over and over again in slightly different ways. I get it, the police constables were inept. I got that after the first fifty pages of this repetitive information.

Who would have thought a book about the birth of the NYPD in the crime ridden, gang infested, poverty stricken, strife filled 1820's-1850's could be so damn boring.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

What should have been a great book was marred by the repetition of limited sources and the same point over and over again. Occasional reference to events outside of NYC were irrelevant and distracting. The is read like a first draft desperately in need of revision. The premise was fine and the story important but it isn't very well done. Like its title the book, too is chaotic and disorderly. I don't recommend it.

[Amity Kirby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some interesting facts about NY but it really was not about the birth of the NYPD. Lots about riots, gangs, prostitution, riots, newspapers, politicians, riots. Very little about the NYPD. The last bit of the book finally talked more about the police but it really was not a "birth" of and in-depth story of one of the most famous police forces in the world. I was rather bummed.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a bit misleading in that this book mostly chronicles events leading up to the creation of the first organized police force in NYC, not the NYPD as it is known today. What Chadwick presents here is primarily a vivid Dickensian picture of a corrupt, violent, and lawless antebellum New York City and the efforts to create an effective law enforcement agency.

[Deanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't my favorite book. The author repeats himself, especially in the first chapter talking about the constables. He talks about what is happening in the city and crime and prostitution, etc. but doesn't really getting around to the "birth" of the NYPD until almost the end of the book. The book seems chaotic. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you absolutely needed something to read.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read by one of my favorite historians. It set up how the NYPD came about and the social conditions that birthed it.

It is a little light on the police force first few years but overall a good read.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit misnamed. It is really about the crime wave that led to the formation of the NYPD. It is very interesting but it does not discuss the time in which the police became and effective military group.

[Tiffany Guthrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I had an opportunity to read this book. I really enjoyed it!

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. Repetitive.

[Deborah Cleaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow slog of a book. Poor choice of fonts in the printing.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was long-winded and convoluted. Thorough, but mostly unuseful as a research text.

[Jess Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information but it seems like too much research was done and instead of leaving it out or adding it as notes in the end, unnecessary information was added throwing off the flow.

[J.J. Nordman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brice Chadwick’s is less about the NYPD and more about what a mess New York City was in the 1800’s. The author prefaces the book by telling us that crime levels in pre-Civil War NYC were six times what they are today, even more at the time than London and Paris (not sure I agree with that one.) Regardless, the city was known for bad behavior, and the chance of getting robbed and murdered was high. There wasn’t much in the way of law & order, and the police were never much help.

Chadwick’s first chapter discusses the constant rioting in downtown New York (well there wasn’t much of an “uptown” yet) and the Black churches, schools, and homes were a favorite target. The first great riot of the city was not the famous Draft Riot of the Civil War, but the Summer Riot of 1834 (seems like the trouble in this city is always worse in the summer) where the abolitionist meetings were attacked. The few police available did try to stop the riots, but with no results. There wasn’t much that ten cops (with limited armament) could do against 300 violent men, especially when those men had no qualms about killing the police. Maybe those cops just weren’t willing to risk their lives for the minuscule pay they got.

[Kiki Z]

While the topic had loads of potential to be interesting, I read over half a book that basically just repeated the same information in various ways over and over and jumped between decades and times for no discernible reason. There is also a reliance on quotes to presumably add flair and first person knowledge, especially as Walt Whitman is the most quoted, but this really only serves to pad the writing since none of the quotes add anything to what the author is saying. This might be about the birth of the NYPD, but we're nowhere near there at the halfway point. I'm sure there are better books about this out there; I can't say I'd recommend this.

[Mirlou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bruce Chadwick gives us an epic and richly anecdotal history of crime and law enforcement in New York from the 1830s until the eve of the civil war.