Enforcement of the Sunday Closing Laws on the Lower East Side, 1882-1903‪.‬

On Sunday, December 3, 1882, a day described by the New York Times as one "long to be remembered in the history of this City," (1) New York's finest took to the streets and with great zeal arrested 137 persons for various violations of the newly codified "Crimes against the Person and Against Public Decency and Good Morals," otherwise known as the Sunday Laws. Among those arrested in the crackdown were at least thirty-five Jews, including bootblacks, newspaper vendors, barbers, cigar vendors, ragpickers, fruit vendors, and truck-, butcher- and coal-cart drivers. (2) While the police arrested cigar vendors, they allowed saloonkeepers to sell cigars and liquor, with customers entering the saloon through side or family doors, while the police continued their tradition of ignoring this infringement of the law. Because so many of the cases were dismissed by the magistrates sitting in the Police Courts open that day (the courts observed limited hours on Sunday), the New York Times predicted that the day's activities and the resulting unnatural quiet in the city's streets would not be repeated. During the week that followed, Jewish tradesmen, including grocers, dry-goods dealers, clothiers, bakers, and jewelers, obtained injunctions from one Judge Arnaux on the grounds that they were covered by an exemption which provided that the observance of another day of the week as "holy time" could be a defense against prosecution. These temporary orders enjoined the police from making arrests of those protected by the injunctions until a hearing scheduled for December 21, 1882. Thus the following Sunday was relatively quiet: the injunctions were in effect (announced by signs in the windows), the weather was bad, and the police had decided to allow barbering and other activities related to personal grooming as well as baggage and newspaper delivery and the operation of telegraph offices. (3)