It seems to me that once politics and political leaders became prominent in Five Points, things started to get messy and complicated. The Irish of Five Points were already struggling in finding jobs, fitting in, and trying to make a life for themselves. We have read numerous times now how immigrants were isolated and formed their own communities to help them find their way and be comfortable or have that aspect of home with them here in America. Once new laws and a higher power gaining control over them came about, the Irish felt threatened and were left to resort to violence to get their way.
In Anbinder’s Five Points, we see the government provoking discrimination by implementing two laws that were targeted towards the Irish. The “license law,” which raised the cost of a liquor license and banned the selling of alcohol on Sundays. The Metropolitan Police Act, which changed the way New York City Police Department was chosen and who was part of it. Both of these were important in the lives of the Irish. Liquor was a big part of their community and their culture, and the police department supplied a good amount of jobs for the Irish.
At first there was no one to support the Irish in government, until some representatives made it up there. From this you have riots breaking out, the way that the Irish saw they could fight against what the government had ruled. You had people fighting for their freedoms, what America is supposed to stand for. I thought it was interesting how phrases were shouted like “The Metropolitans are coming”, or “The Bowery Boys are coming”, which sound oddly close to “The British are coming”; America was fighting the British for their freedom, as the Irish were trying to do.” There was also another reference, the Sixth Ward’s “civil war”. Where America’s civil war was yet another instance where the people were fighting for freedom.
There is this pattern in history where if there are two opposing thoughts between the people and the government, and no one with enough power to fight for them, the people take it into their own hands. What’s scary is how violent people can be when it comes to fighting for their freedoms; how they aren’t afraid of killing someone if that meant that they would get what they wanted. These types of things have happened all throughout history from discrimination, and not just racial discrimination, which shows that any form of discrimination can lead to events such as this if people feel strongly enough about the situation at hand.
