Historical Background to the New York Police Story

New York Draft Riots

In short, it is the serious unfairness of the draft system: the new draft order stipulates that if you can afford $300, you will be exempted from serving. You know, at that time, US$300 was probably equivalent to more than US$30,000 today; therefore, this policy was equivalent to granting military service exemption to the wealthy and privileged classes, while the poor who could not afford US$300 had to face fighting on the front lines of the Civil War. The fate of cannon fodder. Among them, blacks and Irish immigrants were even worse off. Many blacks were recruited as substitutes for the rich to join the army. Most of the young Irish men had just arrived in New York Harbor and were forced to sign a "voluntary military service" form when their residence permit was issued. He immediately abandoned his wife and children and was sent to the front line! On Monday, July 13 of that year, the long-standing conflicts finally broke out. People who had been drafted into the army began to riot, attacking all public institutions, and the streets of New York suddenly burst into flames... In the end, the only way to do it was to call in naval warship guns. They bombed the city center and then dispatched the army to massacre the city before using extreme methods to suppress the riot. In the summer of 1863, riots across the city resulted in the deaths of 119 people and serious injuries to more than 300 people in Manhattan. The "record" of civilian casualties caused by the four-day riots from July 13 to July 16, 1863 was not "broken" until the 9.11 incident.