mpowers01
Irish-American Civil Servants In the 20th Century
This photo is of an Irish-American policeman in Central Park, New York, NY on a Sunday afternoon. It was published in September, 1942. Most notable about this photo is its context. Second-, third-, and fourth-generation Irish have continued to populate civil service jobs, particularly in police departments across the nation. James Wilson states, “The Irish cop, like the Irish politician, has long been a legendary figure…The police forces of many large cities have continued to be heavily Irish Catholic long after the great wave of Irish immigration subside and long after the spread of mass education, the collapse of anti-Irish discriminatory practices, and the growth of the urban middle class should have made police work a career of diminishing value to a group so long in this country,” (Wilson 1964). Wilson offers two explanations about why Irish-Americans continue to populate the police forces in large cities. First, they either benefit from a promotional system that is biased in their favor. This view is substantiated by many non-Irish. Another belief is that Irish-Americans who serve as police officers have been brought up in “police families.” Having been raised in these families, these officers have associated with other police officers, networked, and grown accustomed to a lifestyle that is inherent to them (Wilson 1964).
CITATIONS:
Wilson, J. 1964. Generational and Ethnic Differences Among Career Police Officers. The American Journal of Sociology, The University of Chicago Press: 522-528.
memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?fsaall:245:./temp/~ammem_k...
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American
Irish-American Civil Servants In the 20th Century
This photo is of an Irish-American policeman in Central Park, New York, NY on a Sunday afternoon. It was published in September, 1942. Most notable about this photo is its context. Second-, third-, and fourth-generation Irish have continued to populate civil service jobs, particularly in police departments across the nation. James Wilson states, “The Irish cop, like the Irish politician, has long been a legendary figure…The police forces of many large cities have continued to be heavily Irish Catholic long after the great wave of Irish immigration subside and long after the spread of mass education, the collapse of anti-Irish discriminatory practices, and the growth of the urban middle class should have made police work a career of diminishing value to a group so long in this country,” (Wilson 1964). Wilson offers two explanations about why Irish-Americans continue to populate the police forces in large cities. First, they either benefit from a promotional system that is biased in their favor. This view is substantiated by many non-Irish. Another belief is that Irish-Americans who serve as police officers have been brought up in “police families.” Having been raised in these families, these officers have associated with other police officers, networked, and grown accustomed to a lifestyle that is inherent to them (Wilson 1964).
CITATIONS:
Wilson, J. 1964. Generational and Ethnic Differences Among Career Police Officers. The American Journal of Sociology, The University of Chicago Press: 522-528.
memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?fsaall:245:./temp/~ammem_k...
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American