Victorian Cops Who Tried to Arrest Criminal Miscreants Were Often Attacked by Londoners
Early Victorian cops were especially disliked by the lower classes, who resented the suppression of popular recreations and customs such as public drinking, gambling, prize fights, and street games. Routine police work in poorer neighborhoods, such as patrols to keep an eye out for trouble, raised hackles. It was often viewed as an intrusive and unprecedented surveillance regime. Accordingly, many Victorians, developed an active antipathy towards police and did what they could to make the life of beat cops as miserable as possible.
That often took the form of varied degrees of harassment or even violence. Police who tried to arrest criminal miscreants, particularly in lower-class neighborhoods, were often set upon and attacked by the arrestee’s neighbors, friends, and passersby, in order to rescue him from the cops’ clutches. In addition to objections to police interference with street life, there was even greater resentment when the police got involved in domestic affairs and affrays. Cops who approached private residences, regardless of the motive, risked a hostile reception.