re: #89 Gus

Why Teddy Roosevelt was fucking awesome:

Roosevelt generally judged men and women by their character, or on more than one occasion by their politics, but not on their race or religion. As police commissioner, he opened the department to Jews. One Jewish officer, Otto Raphael, said the traditional prayer for the dead over Roosevelt’s body the night before he was buried.

One of the favorite stories of TR and Jews comes from his time as a Police Commisioner of New York City. A German anti-semitic preacher planned to give speeches in New York “denouncing” Jews. The preacher expected protection from the police department and that is where Roosevelt came in.

Many Jews were alarmed and/or outraged and asked Roosevelt to prevent the speeches. “Of course I told them I could not - that the right of free speech must be maintained unless he incited them to riot.” But, “On thinking it over, however it occurred to me that there was one way in which I could undo most of the mischief he was trying to do.”

Cleverly, TR put a Jewish Police Sergeant in charge of the preachers protection, along with forty Jewish Policemen and the fanatical preacher looked absolutely ridiculous.