Coercive patriotism: gender, militarism, and auxiliary police in New York City during World War II

ABSTRACT This article explores the formation and operation of an auxiliary police agency, the City Patrol Corps, created by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in New York City during World War II. It mines the organization’s internal documents to argue that during the war New York City leaders coerced civilian men to serve in the auxiliary police force, which, in turn, exerted a coercive power over residents of the city. Both of these dynamics comprised part of a process of militarization and expanded criminalization in the city during the war, which was common in cities across the United States during these years, and which this article contends was justified through coercive patriotism. The article further explores the role of gender and race in informing New Yorkers’ motivations to join the City Patrol Corps, their experiences in the organization, and their perceptions of criminality and disorder. In the context of the war mobilization, city leaders argued that surveilling its streets and preventing crime and disorder was an essential component of the war effort. As La Guardia declared in 1940, ‘the maintenance of law and order in our large cities is one of the most important functions of our National Defense Program.’