From: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1309454,120208cop-memo-web.article
Politically incorrect police memo provides insight into Chicago's gangster era
December 2, 2008
By KIM JANSSEN, Staff Writer
Two things threatened to "ruin" the Chicago Police Department in 1923, according to a freshly unearthed, 85-year-old memo sent by the city's police commissioner to the mayor: three-wheeled motorcycles and "dagos."
The racist memo, sent by then-commissioner Michael Hughes to Mayor William Everett Dever on May 26, 1923, provides a fascinating insight into the discrimination faced by Italian-Americans in Chicago during the first half of the 20th Century.
In it, Hughes writes that he is responding to the mayor's suggestion that the city purchase three-wheeled motorcycles and hire more Italians and Italian-Americans.
"I have discussed your suggestion at length with several precinct captains," Hughes writes.
"The general consensus of opinion from all I talked with is without exception opposed to the idea. "The department has been very fortunate in being able to recruit in the main Irishmen from overseas and narrow backs, and should stick with success.
"Nothing I can presently think of would do more to ruin the Chicago Police Department than to implement the use of three-wheel motorcycles and to start hiring Dagos in large numbers."
What appears to be a photocopied version of the memo emerged on an anonymous Chicago detective's Web site last week.
Loyola University professor Art Lurigio, an expert on the criminal justice system and Chicago crime history, said that the memo "smacks of authenticity."
At the time the letter was written, the city's Italian-American population was growing, Lurigio said, adding that Italian-Americans were "frozen out" of political and patronage jobs until the 1950s.
"There were few legitimate employment opportunities for Italian-Americans, so most of them were self-employed," he said.
Many were involved in bootlegging, which may partly explain police antipathy to Italians at the time, Lurigio added.
Perhaps more importantly, Prohibition provided officers with opportunities for graft that they may not have wanted to give up, Lurigio added.
In November 1924, Hughes dined at a banquet in honor of notorious Irish-American gangster Dean O'Banion, although he later told Dever he had been "tricked" into attending.
"It's likely he was corrupt," Lurigio said.
Chicago History Museum curator John Russick said there was "no doubt that bias toward immigrant communities has played a role in history of Chicago," and that "in some instances that prejudice has been expressed by people in public office in the form of offensive language."
Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond conceded the memo was "probably" authentic but declined to comment further.
But Anthony Langone, president of the Italian American Police Association of Illinois said the memo was "disgusting."
"It wouldn't happen today - we wouldn't allow it," Langone said, "Italian-Americans have served honorably with the police in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, but if you are Italian and you come from Chicago, people just think, 'mafia.'"
Retired and heavily decorated Chicago cop Bill Jaconetti said as recently as seven years ago, the IAPA had complained about the term "dago shirt" being used by Chicago officers to describe sleeveless T-shirts in suspect descriptions.
Ethnic slurs like "bomb-thrower" or "Guinea" were also common in the past, Jaconetti said.
Former IAPA president Ralph DeBartolo, now a chief with the Cook County sheriff's police, went further.
"I'd like to know where the grave of the guy who wrote that memo is, so I can go piss on it," he said.
Politically incorrect police memo provides insight into Chicago's gangster era
December 2, 2008
By KIM JANSSEN, Staff Writer
Two things threatened to "ruin" the Chicago Police Department in 1923, according to a freshly unearthed, 85-year-old memo sent by the city's police commissioner to the mayor: three-wheeled motorcycles and "dagos."
The racist memo, sent by then-commissioner Michael Hughes to Mayor William Everett Dever on May 26, 1923, provides a fascinating insight into the discrimination faced by Italian-Americans in Chicago during the first half of the 20th Century.
In it, Hughes writes that he is responding to the mayor's suggestion that the city purchase three-wheeled motorcycles and hire more Italians and Italian-Americans.
"I have discussed your suggestion at length with several precinct captains," Hughes writes.
"The general consensus of opinion from all I talked with is without exception opposed to the idea. "The department has been very fortunate in being able to recruit in the main Irishmen from overseas and narrow backs, and should stick with success.
"Nothing I can presently think of would do more to ruin the Chicago Police Department than to implement the use of three-wheel motorcycles and to start hiring Dagos in large numbers."
What appears to be a photocopied version of the memo emerged on an anonymous Chicago detective's Web site last week.
Loyola University professor Art Lurigio, an expert on the criminal justice system and Chicago crime history, said that the memo "smacks of authenticity."
At the time the letter was written, the city's Italian-American population was growing, Lurigio said, adding that Italian-Americans were "frozen out" of political and patronage jobs until the 1950s.
"There were few legitimate employment opportunities for Italian-Americans, so most of them were self-employed," he said.
Many were involved in bootlegging, which may partly explain police antipathy to Italians at the time, Lurigio added.
Perhaps more importantly, Prohibition provided officers with opportunities for graft that they may not have wanted to give up, Lurigio added.
In November 1924, Hughes dined at a banquet in honor of notorious Irish-American gangster Dean O'Banion, although he later told Dever he had been "tricked" into attending.
"It's likely he was corrupt," Lurigio said.
Chicago History Museum curator John Russick said there was "no doubt that bias toward immigrant communities has played a role in history of Chicago," and that "in some instances that prejudice has been expressed by people in public office in the form of offensive language."
Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond conceded the memo was "probably" authentic but declined to comment further.
But Anthony Langone, president of the Italian American Police Association of Illinois said the memo was "disgusting."
"It wouldn't happen today - we wouldn't allow it," Langone said, "Italian-Americans have served honorably with the police in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, but if you are Italian and you come from Chicago, people just think, 'mafia.'"
Retired and heavily decorated Chicago cop Bill Jaconetti said as recently as seven years ago, the IAPA had complained about the term "dago shirt" being used by Chicago officers to describe sleeveless T-shirts in suspect descriptions.
Ethnic slurs like "bomb-thrower" or "Guinea" were also common in the past, Jaconetti said.
Former IAPA president Ralph DeBartolo, now a chief with the Cook County sheriff's police, went further.
"I'd like to know where the grave of the guy who wrote that memo is, so I can go piss on it," he said.
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