Feb 4th, 2016: National Police Gazette

[xoxoxoBruce]

From 1845 to 1977 the National Police Gazette was the chronicler of the seamy side of America.
Pictures are worth a thousand words but cameras, back in the day, were rarely where the action was,
and not fast enough to catch the juicy stuff anyway.
Besides, illustrators can draw up what the editor wrote, without regard to what really happened.

I highly doubt she wore that, or strangled him like that, but it sells papers.

"We offer a most interesting record of horrid murders, outrageous robberies, bold forgeries, astounding burglaries, hideous rapes, and vulgar seductions in various parts of the country.... The whole country swarms with hordes of English and other thieves, burglars, pickpockets, and swindlers, whose daily and nightly exploits give continual employment to our police officers, and whose course through the land, whatever direction they may take, may be traced by their depredations."
–The National Police Gazette, 1845, the year of its founding

But the paper didn’t have a big impact on journalism until 1877, when the mission of reporting was joined by
equal partners, instigating and accelerating, after it was taken over by a new editor/publisher named FOX.
Hmm, FOX News, the prequel.

A century before Howard Stern hit the airwaves, there was a man who not only recognized the appeal of quasi-lesbian imagery, but–like Stern–knew how to make it an acceptable part of popular culture. Five generations before Stephen Colbert and Sacha Baron Cohen blurred the distinction between the real and fictional news correspondent, there was a man who populated his real-news publication with fictional editors and their semi-real exploits. Before there was the celebrity gossip column, he invented it. Before there was a sports page, he created it. Before the advent of the girlie magazine, he provided it. When the sport of boxing was illegal and widely considered immoral, this man championed, promoted, and popularized it all the way into legal and public acceptance. The heads of "respectable" publications looked down on him, but then raced to imitate him when his success became undeniable.

Hugely popular, even across the ocean, the publication made an appearance in James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses. At a time when the barbershop was not just a place to get your hair cut, but served as the de facto gentlemen's club for the working class, it was known as the "bible of the barbershop." Its recipe mixed the titillating and funny with the informative and serious in just the right proportion, in a way that had never been thought of previously, in a way that led directly to what we know as today's tabloid journalism, sports reporting, skin magazines, shock jocks, and quasi-news programs such as the "Daily Show." The purveyors of these current forms of entertainment, as well as the professional sport of boxing, can address their gratitude to one Richard K. Fox and his publication the National Police Gazette.

Ladies living, dying, murdering, fighting, playing, or engaged in antisocial behavior like cigarettes and booze, it mattered not.
As long as they were showing as much skin as possible, and large bosoms, they were fantasy fuel.
National Police Gazette is now online with hefty archives to debauch future generations.

[BigV]

Woman bites Bremerton officer’s finger during rainy traffic stop

by CHRIS TUCKER, Bremerton Patriot Editor
Jan 28, 2016 at 2:00PM updated at 6:39PM

BREMERTON – A Bremerton woman was charged with assault in the third degree after she allegedly bit a Bremerton Police Officer’s finger during a traffic stop Jan. 27.

According to a BPD report, a Bremerton Police Officer was driving north on Perry Avenue while on patrol around 9:45 p.m. It was raining. The officer observed a southbound SUV drive toward him at a speed of about 30mph.

“As it approached and passed me, to my astonishment, I observed a woman in a thin black mini skirt type dress lying on the hood, on her stomach, facing forward,” the officer wrote.

The officer pulled the SUV over. There was loud music coming from the vehicle. The woman, 30, of Bremerton, slid off the hood and staggered around to meet the officer. She was soaking wet from the rain.

The officer called for backup, as the male driver of the SUV was suspected of DUI. The driver had a Florida license and the woman had an ID from Alaska. According to the driver, the woman was his fiancé.

As the driver was being evaluated, the woman allegedly obstructed the officers. An officer politely tried to stop the woman from obstructing, but she kept putting her hands on the officer’s face and became aggressive, so she was arrested.

The woman managed to slip her hand out of one cuff and started hitting the officers with the handcuff, striking one of the officers in the face. The woman also allegedly bit one of the officer’s fingers, causing it to bleed.

“As I pried my finger out of her jaws I observed it bleeding extensively with two deep lacerations to the bone,” an officer wrote. “(the woman) was eventually cuffed and secured, yelling, ‘I taste your blood in my mouth.’”

The officer was treated at Harrison Medical Center ER.

CHRIS TUCKER, Bremerton Patriot Editor
ctucker@soundpublishing.com or 360-308-9161

Yeah, I went ahead and quoted the whole thing. What part could be left out??

If I hadn't read it in the paper, I've thought it was a scene from a movie. For all I know, they were recreating (or creating) one themselves. He's from Alaska, she's from Florida. They meet in rainy Washington (halfway, give or take). He takes her for a ride, she shows him the sights. Cop gets beaten in the face and bitten on the hand by half-dressed half-pint. Really, what a story.

[xoxoxoBruce]

He's from Alaska, she's from Florida.

Other way 'round. I bet those Police Gazette illustrators could have done a dandy picture of that scene.

[BigV]

whoops.

Talented as they may have been, I doubt they could have surpassed my mental picture.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Did she have big boobs and a clinging wet dress?

[BigV]

It was raining. The officer observed a southbound SUV drive toward him at a speed of about 30mph.

“As it approached and passed me, to my astonishment, I observed a woman in a thin black mini skirt type dress lying on the hood, on her stomach, facing forward,” the officer wrote.

Sure!

[Diaphone Jim]

"The whole country swarms with hordes of English and other thieves, burglars, pickpockets, and swindlers..."
What in the world does that mean?

Interesting posting dates, too.