When Parkhurst proclaimed that he had supposed the police “existed for the purpose of repressing crime, [but] it began to dawn upon me … [that] its principal object … was to protect and foster crime and make capital out it,” more people than upper-class liberals listened. Independent Democrats, Republicans, and nonpartisans joined rival Democratic clubs in a fusion ticket. Germans deserted Tammany in droves.56 One result of the election was that Theodore Roosevelt became president of the four-member police commission of New York City,
