From the outset of Prohibition, many city policemen hired themselves out to protect shipments of beer and whiskey. Others were regularly compensated to turn a blind eye. “It was such a common thing,” a patrolman later claimed, that even if you were honest, “it came as a matter of course.” A squad car parked near or in front of a speakeasy generally received an envelope full of cash tossed through the window without the bat of an eye. Who could refuse that kind of treatment?
Comment