New York City Police Department

The New York City Police Department is shown in public view at two moments when New York’s streets become a stage for political conflict: the funeral of Walter Winchell and the crackdown that follows an alleged conspiracy against the government. Its duties shift from overseeing demonstrations and accompanying a civic ceremony to taking part in a city under martial law, where public protest and ordinary communication are sharply restricted.

Public Order and Winchell’s Funeral

During the demonstrations surrounding Winchell’s funeral, New York police are visible throughout the city, chiefly overseeing protests organized by right-wing groups in Yorkville that support the president and his policies. The placement of police in this scene makes the city’s opposing political forces visible in the streets, even as the demonstrations themselves are kept under watch.

At the funeral cortege, policemen wearing black armbands man a motorcycle honor guard. The escort proceeds from Pennsylvania Station along Eighth Avenue, east on 57th Street, and north on Fifth Avenue to Temple Emanu-El, with Fiorello La Guardia leading from a motorcycle sidecar. The police presence thus also gives the mourning procession a public, ceremonial form: the same city whose streets are sites of political confrontation becomes a route for collective tribute.

Arrests During the Political Crisis

As the crackdown intensifies, Fiorello La Guardia joins Eleanor Roosevelt and Roger Baldwin at a press conference demanding the release of Herbert Lehman and the other alleged co-conspirators. La Guardia is subsequently arrested at the mayor’s mansion. The episode places the city’s mayor—who had publicly called for the release of detainees—within the expanding reach of the authorities.

Former president Franklin D. Roosevelt is also taken into police custody after travelling to New York to address an emergency protest rally, ostensibly for his own protection. The account does not identify the arresting officers as members of the New York City Police Department, but it locates the police within a broader effort to contain opposition. The U.S. Army shuts down New York’s newspaper offices and radio stations, while tanks close the bridges and tunnels and an after-dark curfew is enforced around the clock.

From Civic Ceremony to Emergency Rule

The department’s appearances frame a sharp change in the function of policing. At the funeral, uniformed officers and motorcycles help manage a public gathering and accompany its procession; during the crisis, custody and street control take place alongside military restrictions that curtail assembly, movement, and access to news. The contrast makes the police presence part of the novel’s larger depiction of how civic order can be redirected under political emergency, even as the evidence distinguishes the police from the Army’s direct role in closing media offices and sealing the city.