“For Speaking Jewish in a Jewish Neighborhood”: Civil Rights and Community-Police Relations during the Postwar Red Scare, 1919–1922

Abstract

On October 4, 1919, Louis Goldberg was arrested by officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and charged with disorderly conduct for violating a police directive that public gatherings be addressed in the English language. Goldberg’s arrest came at a time of actual crisis in the local housing market, and of a perceived crisis, the Red Scare, at the national level, when foreign language speakers were considered to be sympathizers with radical causes. Goldberg was later released from custody and the charges against him were dismissed, but his preemptive arrest by the NYPD denied him the opportunity to address the gathered crowd for his intended purpose. Although a person could be arrested under the disorderly conduct statute for threatening a breach of the peace, the police arrested Goldberg without any basis for concluding that the impact of his speech was a threat to public order. Goldberg’s case thus illustrates the problems of the use of discretionary authority by police officers in their attempt to control public space. The incident also reveals the tensions that existed in the practice of police work between the maintenance of public order and the protection (or suppression) of basic individual rights, a tension mediated by the rule of law and the ability to utilize discretionary authority.