FORGET LITHIUM BATTERIES: A BLACK TRAFFIC COP ARRESTED AMERICA'S FIRST GREEN PRESIDENT FOR RACING A FAST ALTERNATIVE VEHICLE IN 1872
The Observer reports that in1872. black Washington D.C. policeman William West
arrested President Ulysses S. Grant for speeding as he drove his gig down 13th Street, where Officer West had cautioned him against racing the day before, and the President had solemnly promised to drive more slowly in future. When West saw Grant racing friends on the same street the next day, he collared him..
West's account of the 1872 incident appears in a 1908 article in the Washington Star celebrating his retirement from the police force :
The Observer reports that in1872. black Washington D.C. policeman William West
arrested President Ulysses S. Grant for speeding as he drove his gig down 13th Street, where Officer West had cautioned him against racing the day before, and the President had solemnly promised to drive more slowly in future. When West saw Grant racing friends on the same street the next day, he collared him..
West's account of the 1872 incident appears in a 1908 article in the Washington Star celebrating his retirement from the police force :
“I cautioned you yesterday, Mr. President,” answered the policeman, “about fast driving, and you said, sir, that it would not occur again.”
“Did I?” mused Grant, still with a quizzical smile on his features. “Well, I suppose I forgot it, and that I might have been going a little bit too fast this evening: but hang it officer, these animals of mine are thoroughbreds, and there is no holding them.”
“I am very sorry, Mr. President to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation, and I am but a policeman. But duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest,” West replied.
“All right,” cried Grant, “where do you wish me to go with you?”The policeman said he must go to the station house. At the President’s invitation the policeman took a seat in the vehicle, and as they drove, the war hero questioned him about himself and his antecedents.
Grant went to the courthouse and paid a fine of $20.
DON'T TELL QUENTIN TARANTINO ! |