Today -100: January 8, 1924: Go out and get some

Coolidge puts an embargo on arms sales to the Huertaista rebels in Mexico.

Headline of the Day -100:  

This is the sort of authoritarianism you can expect when you put a US Marine general on a leave of absence, one Smedley Darlington Butler, in charge of a city’s cops (and firemen and elevator inspectors). Gen. Butler says “I have a free hand and will not be interfered with by the politicians.” He tells 2,000 cops at the Metropolitan Opera House, “I don’t believe there’s a single bandit notch on a policeman’s gun in this city. Go out and get some.” Spoken like a veteran of many imperial wars treating the mean streets of Philly like the Philippines.

Elsewhere in law enforcement, Birmingham, Alabama police have gotten 5 black men to confess to 8 axe murders through the use of “‘truth serum,’” the NYT’s quote marks presumably indicating they were falsely told they had been injected with truth serum.

The New York State Moving Picture Commission declines to ban the films of Mabel Normand or Edna Purviance as many other locales are doing because the infatuated chauffeur of the former shot a guy in the presence of the latter.

Michigan Agricultural College (Go Aggies!) is planning to broadcast a sort of running account of a basketball game on the radio. This will be a first.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.