Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police M.P.D.
1900 to 1909
First World Series - First Zeppelin Test Flight - "Call of the Wild" written - FORD Motor Company Founded - Work Begins on Panama Canal
1900 to 1909
BlackSheep Productions 2009
1908 Map of Ladroit Park in Bloomingdale D.C.
1902 cap badge of Officer Joseph W. McDaniel
Photo provided by the M.P.D.
The above map and below article are both form the blog "GHOSTS OF D.C." click on the link above to go to their blog.
This is an odd story from the Washington Times. The paper reported on August 11th, 1908 the arrest of a young five-year-old. Yes, a little kid was arrested and it’s a bizarre story.his is an odd story from the Washington Times. The paper reported on August 11th, 1908 the arrest of a young five-year-old. Yes, a little kid was arrested and it’s a bizarre story. Not only was he taken in by the police, but they had to do so in front of the young boys dog. Poor Nellie.
Seated on his front porch, his arm around his pet dog, Nellie, who tried to guard him, little five-year-old Gus Oputz, who was arrested last night by Officer Clay, the giant policeman of the Fourth precinct, tried to decide this morning why he had been arrested. He said he had done nothing. The dog said nothing, but gazed with a savage intensity on each visitor, and made each visitor feel embarrassed by taking an unwholesome interest in his trousers.
According to the police, Gus was arrested for destroying private property. The extent of the depredation consisted of taking six lathes from a disused and disreputable shanty, and nailing them together tha he might get a kite that was caught in a tree.
The residents of the neighborhood in which Gus lives are intensely wrought up over his arrest, and are unanimous in their declaration that it was unjustified. Gus is not worried over the matter. In a calmly, judicial manner he insists that the officer is a “mean man,” and expresses the conservative opinion that he will come to no good end.
This afternoon the matter will be threshed out before Judge DeLacy at Juvenile Court.
Gus was arrested by policeman last evening as he was peacefully poking at his kite, which was lodged in the topmost branches of a tree. A large crowd, attracted by the unusual picture of a six-foot-and-a-half policeman arresting a five-year-old child, hooted at the unresponsive Clay.
At the station house the boy’s father agreed to be responsible for the lad’s appearance in court today.
This is such a weird story. Evidently, his criminal record did not impact his future that much since he successfully completed his World War I Draft Registration Card on September 12th, 1918. Of course, he would have been only 15 at the time, but I suspect he wanted to fulfill his patriotic duty to serve in the military and lied about his age.
From the " Ghosts of D.C. "
1906 Speed Limit Set: 12 Miles Per Hour
This is an amusing little piece that we dug up in the Baltimore Sun from April 7th, 1906. Ever complain about the speed limits in the city today? Take a look at what they were like over a hundred years ago.
Washington, April 6.–The Senate Committee on the District of Columbia today reported favorably a bill providing for the punishment of violations of the speed laws relating to automobiles. It limits the speed to 12 miles an hour within the city limits of Washington and 20 miles outside the limits.
For the first offense a fine of from $5 to $50 is provided; for the second offense a fine of from $10 to $100, with discretionary imprisonment; for the third offense, within one year, the fine prescribed is from $50 to $250, and it is made mandatory upon the court to sentence the offender to serve from one to six months in the workhouse.
Below is a 1906 Ford vehicle common in D.C.
CpG
P.O. Box 911
Foxborough, Ma.
02035
Captain James Duvall
Through his years....
Captain Duvall was an motivated policeman with the M.P.D. He was one of the first officers assigned to a bicycle unit. He was also very much involved in the Womens Suffrage Demonstration. His testimony is documented in the 1908 U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee
