Irish Thought for May 18...

Irish-American Facts

By 1855, according to New York Police Commissioner George W. Matsell, himself an Englishman, having been born in Liverpool, England, in 1806, almost 17 percent of the police department's officers were Irish born (compared to 28.2 percent in the city) in a report to the Board of Alderman.  In the 1860s more than half of those arrested in New York City were Irish born or of Irish descent but nearly half of the city's law enforcement were also Irish.  By the turn of the century, five out of six NYPD officers were Irish born or of Irish descent.  As late as the 1960s, even after minority hiring efforts, 42 percent of the NYPD were Irish-Americans.