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Timothy Taylor added 2 new photos.
December 26 at 3:07pm ·
KNOW & UNDERSTAND YOUR HISTORY PEOPLE.! WAS WATCHING a bit of the ceremony for one of the slain NYPD police officers, and the flag the coffin was draped in grabbed my attention. So of course, I thought in terms of history:
THE NYPD FLAG is historically rooted in Irish culture. In fact, the NYPD is basically an Irish police force as are many others around the country - especially those in predominantly black communities or cities densely populated with black people. This is important if you understand the disdain with which the immigrant Irish community (among other whites) viewed the black community. If you know the history of the Irish immigrant and how they saw the embracing of their "whiteness" as the only perceivable edge they had over blacks who they imagined themselves competing with for employment and ghetto housing you'd have a better understanding of policing attitudes. This enmity is inherently part of the NYPD's historical and psychological make-up as well as whats at the historical core of many of America's Irish dominated police departments.
PERHAPS the most challenging task when looking at the Irish-American experience of the American Civil War is attempting to comprehend why so many Irish felt such antipathy towards the black community. Such ill-feeling found its full expression in events such as the lynchings and beating of New York’s African-Americans during the 1863 Draft Riots, an event in which the majority of participants were Irish."
FREDERICK DOUGLASS spoke concerning Irish/African American relations saying:
‘The Irish, who, at home, readily sympathize with the oppressed everywhere, are instantly taught when they step upon our soil to hate and despise the Negro. They are taught to believe that he eats the bread that belongs to them. The cruel lie is told them, that we deprive them of labor and receive the money which would otherwise make its way into their pockets. Sir, the Irish-American will one day find out his mistake. He will find that in assuming our avocation, he has also assumed our degredation. But for the present we are the sufferers. Our old employments by which we have been accustomed to gain a livelihood are gradually slipping from our hands. Every hour sees us elbowed out of some employment to make room for some newly-arrived emigrant from the Emerald Isle, whose hunger and color entitle him to special favor. These white men are becoming house-servants, cooks, stewards, waiters and flunkies. For aught I see they adjust themselves to their stations with all proper humility. If they cannot rise to the dignity of white men, they show they can fall to the degredation of black men. But now, sir, look once more! While the colored people are thus elbowed out of employment, while a ceaseless enmity in the Irish is excited against us, while state after state enacts laws against us, while we are being hunted down like wild beasts, while we are oppressed with a sense of increasing insecurity, the American Colonization Society, with hypocrisy written on its brow, comes to the front, awakens to new life, and vigorously presses its scheme for our expatriation upon the attention of the American people."
"HISTORICALLY, the NYPD was a (multi-generational) Irish and, later, Irish-American police force and, to a VERY large extent, it still is. There is a fraternal society of Irish-American police officers called the Emerald Society which, among other things, is dedicated to the preservation of Irish-American culture (not just within the NYPD and other Irish-dominated police forces; but in general) and to the recognition of the contributions and accomplishments of Irish-Americans and their Irish ancestors to both the NYPD (and other police forces) and to American culture in general."
"BEGINNING in the 1870s, politics and corruption of Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish immigrants infiltrated the NYPD, which was used as political tool, with positions awarded by politicians to loyalists. Many officers and leaders in the police department took bribes from local businesses, overlooking things like illegal liquor sales. Police also served political purposes such as manning polling places, where they would turn a blind eye to ballot box stuffing and other acts of fraud. NOTE: It was an Irish police officer in Philadelphia who shot and killed the prominent black businessman, political activist Octavious Catto on 9th & South St." #Ferguson #MikeBrown #EricGarner #NYPD #IrishAmerican #AfricanAmerican #RaceRelations
www.royallegacy.org
For Real (Official Video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBRoCPO8esE
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