9. Roosevelt became popular with the people through walking the streets of the city
When he learned that many police officers spent their overnight shifts involved in other activities, such as visiting saloons, brothels, or just sleeping, he began to walk the streets at night, armed with a stick and accompanied by muckraking journalist Jacob Riis. Riis ensured that their nightly strolls were reported in the Evening Sun. Officers encountered in other activities than policing their beat were disciplined, as were their commanders, and the Evening Sun named names. On more than one occasion Roosevelt made arrests himself as part of his walking the beat, holding a miscreant until an officer arrived to take him into custody.
The goodwill generated by Roosevelt’s nocturnal activities kept him popular and promised to boost his political fortunes until he began to enforce the law prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sundays. At a time when most workers labored six days a week, Sundays were welcomed by saloon owners and patrons. To many, Roosevelt became less of a reformer and instead more of a zealot. The attempt to enforce the Sunday liquor laws was unsuccessful, and Roosevelt’s political fortunes once again waned within the Republican party, which considered him too broadly disliked by the public to be supportable in local elections.
