9. Viral Christmas Violence Played a Key Role in the Formation of American Police Forces
Sozzled and often belligerent Christmas celebrants were full of anything but good cheer. They beat drums, sang loudly, rang doorbells, expressed social discontents, smashed windows, fired their guns, and otherwise made themselves disagreeable and strove to “make the night hideous“. Such nuisance crimes were just the tip of the iceberg. Knifings, shootings, arson, and other acts of mayhem and murder were also common. It was a reminder to the era’s 1% that class conflict and violence seethed beneath America’s surface. The authorities were largely powerless to stop the Christmas crime sprees and disorders. Understandably, respectable citizens condemned Christmas as a disgrace.
Newspapers railed against “the drunken men and boys in the street“, and the “black sheep … who made night hideous with Galathumpian doings“. In 1844, a New York Ledger editorial deplored the streets being overrun with a “riotous spirit … our city has almost daily been the theater of disorders which practically nullify civil government “. Pressure finally led to the creation of modern police forces capable of effective crowd control. They kept the crime spree relatively controlled by keeping the celebrants out of the business districts and wealthy residential areas. Instead, they made sure that the Christmas hooligans confined their disorders to their own working-class neighborhoods. Eventually, a cultural shift took the wild partying from holy Christmas, and made the secular New Year’s the time for rowdiness instead.