The New York City Police Riot
When Daniel Conover arrived at City Hall on June 16, 1857, to assume the recently vacant office of Street Commissioner, which had been promised to him by the governor, Mayor Fernando Wood told him the office had been filled, and had officers of the Municipal Police remove him from the building. Conover obtained warrants for Wood’s arrest for inciting a riot and for violence against his person. When Metropolitan Police Captain Walling tried to serve the warrant he was thrown into the street by Municipal Police.
Walling was joined by over fifty Metropolitans outside of City Hall, and the Municipals attacked them, with a riot between the two uniformed police forces erupting in the street and on the steps of the building, all armed with nightsticks. The fight lasted about 45 minutes, including fighting inside the corridors of City Hall, before the outnumbered Metropolitans were forced to retreat. Over fifty police officers of both departments required treatment for injuries.
When Sheriff Jacob Westervelt attempted to serve Conover’s warrants and was also refused by the Mayor and the Municipals, they asked assistance from Major Charles Sandford and the US Army Seventh Regiment surrounded City Hall. The Mayor agreed to allow the warrants to be served. He was arrested, released on bond, and was never brought to trial. The rivalry between the two police departments, the Metropolitans and the Municipals, worsened.
The Metropolitans were under the control of a board appointed by the governor, the Municipals under positions controlled by the Mayor, and the tension between the political offices was exacerbated by ethnic tensions among the officers of the two forces. The criminal underworld of New York took full advantage of the rivalry, and another clash between the Metropolitans and the Municipals emerged in rioting during the first week of July.
In the fall of 1857, following several court rulings which found that the governor was within his rights establishing a Board of Commissioners to supervise the New York Metropolitan Police, Mayor Wood conceded, and the New York Municipal Police Force was disbanded. The Metropolitan Police then began the task of earning the confidence of the communities they served, and control over the criminal element which had profited in the summer of 1857.