USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 11
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Perhaps the only function which still belonging to the city, was the control of its police force. This was wholly in the hands of the mayor, and had been so administered that the police was overrun with politics and infected with cor- ruption. Mayor Shakespeare, 1878-82, took the bull by the horns in the matter of blackmail and corruption that existed in the police force, growing out of the gambling business, and introduced a system known as the Shakespeare plan. It was peculiar to New Orleans, and never attempted anywhere else in the country, and proved what could scarcely have been conceived from so remarkable a plan- a success.
Gambling had always been very prevalent in New Orleans, in spite of the fact that the earliest French colonial ordinances contained numerous edicts against it. Mayor Shakespeare took the view that it was useless to carry on the statute books ordinances against gambling that could not be enforced and which only gave the police opportunity to blackmail the gamblers. He could not li- cense gambling ; that was against the State constitution ; but he argued with the gamblers that if they paid so much into his hands monthly and carried on an "honest game," he, as chief of the police, would not allow the officers to inter- fere, or molest them. They accepted this agreement, and the money derived from this source was used by the mayor in erecting the Shakespeare Almshouse -an institution the need of which had been greatly felt-and in maintaining
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that and other charity institutions. The whole transaction was extrajudicial. The money paid into the hands of the mayor did not have to be accounted for to any one and could be used by him as he saw fit. Its administration and ex- penditure called for the utmost confidence in the chief magistrate. The system ultimately was abused and the Shakespeare fund gradually disappeared from the extraordinary revenues of the city.
The charter of 1882 lasted fourteen years, until 1896. It was badly shaken by the elections of 1888 and 1896, in both of which the issue of munici- pal reform was a prominent feature and succeeded in carrying the election. The administration of the city had grown very bad between 1882 and 1888, and the popular demand was for the protection of the public interests from politics and politicians.
The election of a reform city administration in 1888 led to several im- portant changes, especially in the matter of the police and firemen. The police department had become permeated with politics. It was badly demoralized, moreover, by the radical change in the force which came with each change of ad- ministration. To correct these evils it was decided to take from the mayor some of the supreme power he exercised over the force and to put it more or less under the control of a police board. This was accomplished in 1890-91 by the passage of the Police Board Act.
The fire department has been for nearly seventy years and from the earliest days of New Orleans, outside the control of the city and in the hands of the Fire- men's Charitable Association (the Volunteer Firemen). The contract of the Volunteers, which expired in 1891, was taken advantage of to organize a munic- ipal fire department under the control of the city, through the Board of Fire Control and the Fire and Lighting Committee of the council.
The city soon began to feel the influence of these changes. The adminis- tration of municipal affairs showed a marked improvement beginning in 1888, when a great deal of paving was done, and New Orleans began to release itself from the decay into which it had fallen in all matters of municipal administra- tion. This improvement created such public enthusiasm and desire for still further advance that the election of 1896, like that of 1888, turned almost wholly on the question of municipal reform; and it was given out that the suc- cess of the reform movement would mean a new charter for the city. The move- ment having won, the members of the Legislature elected on that ticket set at work at once to carry out the promises made to the people, and the result was the passage of the charter of 1896.
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A MODEL MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
The latter charter is an ideal one, from the standpoint of the political and municipal economist. It is in line with the suggestions of the Municipal Re- form League and contains almost all the suggestions of that body as to what should be contained in a model charter. Perhaps its chief defect lay in the fact instead of going into operation all at one time, the charter became operative partly in 1896 and partly in 1900. The Legislature did not like to disturb the new city government so soon after it has been installed, and hence it provided that there should be no change in the officers until after the next election (1900). This fact has led to considerable confusion and litigation to de- termine what part of the charter of 1896 went into immediate operation and what part was postponed until 1900.
The charter of 1896 continued the councilmanic system, but with only one council, of smaller dimensions than that created by the charter of 1882-seven- teen instead of thirty members. The councilmen, as formerly, are elected by districts and wards ; but-and this was a radical innovation-are paid for their services, whereas all the previous councilmen and aldermen had served without pay. The other elective officers are few in number-mayor, comptroller and treasurer-the latter two to prevent the mayor having too great control over the finances of the city. The other officials-commissioners of streets, surveyor, city attorney, etc., are appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the council. Under this charter the power of the mayor is very great, and he practically names the other officials, who constitute his cabinet. This is in full accord with the recommendations of the Municipal Reform League, which claims that it assures a harmonious administration, prevents a division of responsibility, and that it increases the chances of the people securing good government as they ought to be able to elect a fit and proper mayor ; whereas they may, if they are compelled to choose a half dozen officers, make a mistake as to some of them.
The principles of civil service reform were recognized and endorsed in the new charter. A board was created to prepare and put in operation a system of civil-service rules for the new government ; and it was provided that all appoint- ments and promotions thereafter would be made in accordance with these rules.
The new charter was a model one. The only fault that could be found with it was that it was somewhat in advance of public sentiment in New Or- leans, in too great contrast with the political conditions that had prevailed there;
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in fine, that the reforms it proposed were too radical and sudden and did not take local conditions sufficiently in account.
Under the charters of 1870 and 1882, the city had lost and surrendered most of its municipal functions, which had been sold or leased. Beginning in 1888, the disposition had been for the city to regain control of these functions, but to safeguard them against the danger of partisan politics by placing them under the control of boards and commissions, beyond the reach of politics and popular elections. This idea was undoubtedly the fruit of the suc- cess met with by the Board of Liquidation in dealing with the city debt. That debt had been so mismanaged by the city and so admirably managed by the Board of Liquidation that public sentiment strongly favored placing as many as possible of the functions of the city beyond the reach of politics. This plan has been steadily carried on since then until the government of New Orleans as it exists to-day is a most composite one, made up of a dozen different bodies, dis- tinct and separate from the municipal government proper-the mayor, city of- ficials and council-and in most cases absolutely independent of it. These in- dependent boards and commissions are as follows :
Civil Service Commission .- Three members appointed by the mayor and serving each for twelve years. Commission created in 1896 by the city charter. The commission makes rules and regulations for the selection of minor officials, recommends persons for appointment and hears complaints of removals without cause.
Board of Liquidation of the City Debt .-- Created in 1880 by an act of the Legislature. Composed of nine members ; six citizens chosen ; two by the Gov- ernor, two by the Lieutenant-Governor and two by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Mayor, Treasurer and Comptroller of the city ex- officio. This board has control of the city debt and of all revenues coming to the city from the sale franchiscs.
Police Board .- Created in 1888 by the Legislature, with control over the police force. It consits of meinbers chosen by the council for twelve years each, and the Mayor ex-officio.
Board of Fire Commissioners .- Created in 1891, by the council. It con- sists of nine commissioners, chosen by the council, and the Mayor and Commis- sioner of Police and Public Buildings, ex-officio, and has control over and regu- lation of the fire department.
School Board .- It consists of twenty members, of whom cight are ap- pointed by the Governor and twelve elected by the city council.
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Board of Health (two boards, one State and one city) .- Chosen partly by appointment by the Governor and partly by election by the council. These boards exercise jurisdiction over quarantine and all sanitary matters.
Orleans Levee Board .- Created by the Legislature in 1890. The board consists of seven members, and has full control over all levee matters-the con- struction, repair and maintenance of levees and the drainage of the city. It exercises the right to levy a tax not to exceed one mill for levee purposes, and to issue bonds to raise the necessary funds for levee construction.
Port Commission .- Created by the Legislature in 1896. This board has charge of the wharves, the collection of port dues, etc. Its powers will be greater after the expiration of the wharf lease (1901) and the return of the wharves to the possession of the city. The board consists of six members, ap- pointed by the Governor.
The Drainage Commission .- Composed of nine members, including five chosen from the Orleans Levee Board. The commission has charge of all mat- . ters relating to drainage and the work of providing the new drainage system of the city.
Water and Sewerage Board .- Established by the Legislature in 1899 and going into active operation in 1900. It consists of seventeen members, appointed from the Orleans Levee Board, from the Board of Liquidation, the Drainage Commission, and seven commissioners, one from each district, appointed by the Mayor. The board has charge of the sewerage and drainage, of providing New Orleans with a sewerage system and with water-works. It levies taxes and is authorized to raise bonds thereon to carry on the work entrusted to it.
Thus it will be seen that the control of the police, fire deparment, schools, wharves, levees, sewerage, drainage, water supply, the public debt, sanitation and the appointment of minor officials have been taken from the city govern- ment proper and given to various boards and commissions, selected by the Gov- ernor, Legislature, Mayor or Council, all acting independently of the city and not answerable to it, and holding their several positions for long terms or even for life.
THE POLICE.
The police system of New Orleans has passed through the same changes and transformations as other branches of the city government; indeed, there have been even more changes from the purely military system of the early days
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to the effective civil and municipal system which prevails to-day under the con- trol and management of a Board of Police Commissioners. Under the French and Spanish rule, there was practically no police force for New Orleans. The preservation of the peace of the city was delegated to a few soldiers and civilians who patrolled the streets at night. As in medieval times, these watchmen called out the hours, as well as the state of the weather, and, in order to give a feel- ing of confidence to citizens, shouted, if everything was satisfactory, "Tout va bien !"-"All is well!" The patrolling was not done by single men but by squads of four or five gens d'armes (the city guard), who wore the usual French or Spanish uniform of gens d'armerie-cocked hat, deep blue frock coat and breast straps of black leather supporting a cartridge-box. They went armed, too, and carried an old-fashioned flint-lock musket with sword bayonet and short sword.
The only policing was done at night, when malefactors were thought to be about. Early in the evening the sergeant collected his squad at the guard-room which adjoined the old calabosa (calaboose or prison). Here the gens d'armes were put through the manual of arms, after which, with each squad under the command of a corporal, they marched, at "shoulder arms," to the section of the city they were detailed to patrol and guard. The city was very much limited in area then, including only the vieux carre bounded by what are now Canal, Rampart and Esplanade streets and the Mississippi. After making a round of the city, the several squads returned to the guard-house to make a report, and with such prisoners as they had picked up-negroes and drunken wayfarers. There was naturally a strong prejudice against the gens d'armes or serenos and the civil population, a majority of the former being Spainiards, whom the Creoles detested. The gens d'armes were accordingly the butt of the people, the subject of frequent lampoons and burlesque songs. In scrimmages, which were frequent, they suffered from their popular dislike, for a prisoner who was arrested by them had only to set up a cry to call his neighbors to his rescue. In nearly all such encounters the gens d'armes were outnumbered and overpowered and their prisoners released. The police were ordered by the Spanish officers to use their weapons as little as possible, so as not to intensify the Creole opposition to Span- ish rule, which, always strong, grew stronger during the latter days of that dom- ination. The calabosa, which was the police headquarters, was situated on St. Peters street in the rear of the present Louisiana Supreme Court building, hav- ing been erected there in 1795 by Don Andres Almonaster, builder of the St. Louis cathedral.
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The actual police system of New Orleans, as distinguished from the mili- tary police system that prevailed under French and Spanish rule, dates from the establishment of the American dominion in Louisiana. After the abolition of the Spanish Cabildo or government of New Orleans and the establishment of the temporary municipal government under Mayor Etienne de Boré, one of the first acts of the new council was to provide for a proper police force ; and Messrs. Livandais and E. Jones, members of the council, were appointed special police commissioners to inspect the prisons and formulate police regulations. The regulations drawn up by these commissioners were 108 in number. They are yet in existence among the city archives and give an excellent idea of the social as well as the police conditions which then existed in the little city. Some of them were so thoroughly in popular favor that they are continued to this day, with scarcely verbal changes.
Article 1 prohibits blasphemy (cursing) on the public streets. Article 2 prohibits "the driving of carts on the streets on Sunday" without a good excuse therefor, the punishment for "breaking the Sabbath" being twenty-four hours' imprisonment in the calabosa. Article 3 prohibits gambling of all kinds. On the third offense the gamblers as well as those who played with them were sub- ject not only to a heavy fine but were ordered to receive "twenty-five lashes on the bare back." There is no evidence that this severe law was ever en- forced or had the slightest effect in suppressing or even reducing the gambling. New Orleans, on the contrary, stuck to gambling and indulged in more games of chance than any other city in the Union.
The Police Regulations of Messrs. Livandais and Jones were very well prepared and covered nearly all the offences against the peace and order of the community. A police being necessary to see to their enforcement, one was created to consist of twenty-five men, with Pierre Achille Rivery at their head as "Commissioner General of Police in the city and suburbs of New Orleans." M. Pierre Pedesclaux was made clerk to the chief and two aids provided for. The pay of the officers was very small, the two aids getting $20 and $25 only, respectively. The latter amount, $25, was paid to the second aid because he was required to know English as well as French. The American immigration was already pouring into the city, and the first comers, rude pioneers and flat- boatmen from the West, were a most troublesome class, who set at defiance the police force of New Orleans.
The small pay allowed the police rendered it no easy matter to secure white
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
men for the force as was desired, and the council finally provided that if white men could not be found to do the police duty mulattoes might be employed; but the officers must be white-a remarkable provision in view of the existence of negro slavery at the time, and the strong prejudice afterward shown to the employment of negroes as officers. The patrol of the police was no longer re- stricted to the city limits, but they were required to go beyond the "walls" when requested by citizens "to catch runaway negroes, and put a stop to looting and other crimes."
In 1805 the temporary municipal government of New Orleans, which had existed from the time of the American purchase of Louisiana, was abolished, and the city was regularly incorporated by the Territorial Legislature. Mr. Regnier was appointed sub-inspector of police, and the police was recognized as a part of the municipal and civil government instead of the military govern- ment as heretofore. In August, 1804, the patrol militia was reorganized, with Col. Bellechasse as commandant. It was made up of firemen and hunters, and consisted of four squads of fifteen men each, the squads changing every eight days.
The militia patrol under Col. Bellechasse did duty in the outlying districts where there was a large disorderly and turbulent population. There was, in ad- dition, a city patrol, composed of sixteen soldiers, two officers, two sergeants and two corporals, to be chosen each in turn from the militia and the volunteers. The patrol was divided into two sections for the night service, the first patrol going on in the evening and remaining on duty until midnight, when it was relieved by the second watch, which remained on duty until daybreak. The police headquarters were in the city hall, and were maintained by the city gov- ernment. The militia patrol received no pay. It made an application to the city for the necessary appropriation to arm the men, asking for fourteen sabers, nineteen guns and thirty-nine pistols ; but the council refused to make the neces- sary provision. On the contrary, the popular prejudice increased against the militia patrol, many of whom had been soldiers on the police force under the Spanish government ; and in 1806, in deference to popular sentiment, the coun- cil decided to create a city police force, to be known as the "garde de ville." Thus in the short space of four years the police of New Orleans had been four times changed from the military to the gens d'armerie, the constabulary, the militia patrol, and, finally, the garde de ville.
The new organization was intended to be a purely civic police, with the
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
military element, which had survived from the Spanish and French days, elim- inated. It consisted of one chief, two sub-chiefs or assistants and twenty men for the city proper ; and for the Fauxbourg Ste. Marie, the American section, now the first municipal district, the same chief, two sub-chiefs and eight men ; a total force of thirty-three. The chief was provided with a horse and allowed $60 a month, from which he had to provide food for the animal. The sub-chief received $25 a month, and each watchman $20. The police were armed with the old half pike and a saber suspended from a belt of black leather. They wore long brass buckles, on which was engraved "Garde de Ville" (City Watch). The headquarters were still in the city hall, where two men as a relief force and one sub-chief were always on duty. The reliefs were at 7 A. M. in the summer and 9 A. M. in winter.
The new police force went on duty March 14, 1806. It was in trouble within a very short time ; for in an encounter in May of the same year the police were overpowered by a number of rioters, dispossessed of their weapons and badly beaten. For this cowardice the force was formally deprived of its weapons by an ordinance of the city council. The grand jury joined in the popular denunciation of the new force for their failure to do their duty, and declared that the city was "at the mercy of brigands to loot and pillage at pleas- ure." The grand jury cited a very strong case to support the denunciation-that of a man murdered in the Fauxbourg Ste. Marie, whose body was left lying where it fell for three days, until buried by charitable persons.
The next council decided that the city was wasting money on such a police force, and reduced it to eight men, restoring the militia patrols, and thus going back to the military system, the civic police having failed after two years' trial. The chief of the city guard was placed in charge of the militia patrol, who were designated as "constables."
This condition of affairs continued for fourteen years, and was found gen- erally satisfactory. As the city grew in size, the constabulary force was in- creased, and in 1822 it consisted of fifty men, who patrolled the city at night in small squads. This police force, like the fire department, was voluntary and composed of private citizens.
With the division of the city into three municipalities, the patrol was grad- ually abolished and the constabulary increased, each section having its captain and high constable.
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The marauding of the "levee rats" on the freight on the river front led, in 1851, to the organization of a levee police force of nine men, under a sergeant.
In 1852 the three municipalities and the City of Lafayette (now the fourth municipal district) were consolidated into one government, and John Youennes was appointed the first chief of police of the entire city. Under this charter the mayor was constituted the head of the police force of the city, with power to appoint officers, to make regulations and to exercise general control over the police.
This was the condition of affairs up to the time of the Civil War. The occupation of New Orleans by the military force under Gen. B. F. Butler sus- pended all civil government. The city was placed under martial law, the police were superseded by the soldiers, and the head of the police department was the provost marshal, an army officer detailed for that purpose. The violation of ordinances or regulations was punished with severe imprisonment or transporta- tion to Ship Island, or some other of the military prisons established by Gen. Butler.
With the restoration of civil government in Louisiana in 1866, under Mayor John J. Monroe, a police force was reorganized, a large proportion of whom were veterans of the Confederate army. This force figured very con- spicuously in the Mechanics' Institute riot of 1866, and an investigation was made into the matter, which resulted in finding that the police had done their duty, and that the riot was caused by the negroes who were taking part in the convention.
With the establishment of the Republican government in 1868 the entire police system of New Orleans was again changed, and the force again reverted to the military system. The act organizing the metropolitan police force of New Orleans, which was changed and amended from time to time, practically created a military force very similar to the Prætorian guards in the days of the Roman Empire. The force was very much increased, amounting at one time to 800 men. It was reorganized and well paid, so as to get men on it who were willing to fight, and a very considerable portion of the force consisted of veterans of the Civil War, both from the Union and Confederate armies. The police, while bearing only side arms when on ordinary duty, owned rifles and even Gatling guns and other cannon ; and the arms apportioned among the states by the general government were given to them rather than to the militia. In fine, the police practically superseded the militia. under the title of the "Met-
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