Shortly after being assigned his beat by 13th and M Street NW, West comes to the scene of an incident where a woman and young child have been badly injured by a speeding team of horses, violations being common in that area due to the proximity of Brightwood Trotting Park. The Sunday Star ran a brief article in 1906 mentioning West having arrested Grant for speeding in 1872 and in 1908 published an interview with West on the topic, which is the primary account of the alleged arrest. Grant for riding horseback on a pavement." West retired later that year, and the Post repeated this version of events upon West's death in 1915, also mentioning that he "was commended by the President". In a 1901 article regarding a disciplinary action against West, the Post says that he "gained notoriety soon after his appointment by arresting President U. S. Īn 1897 article from The Washington Post speaks of "a police officer named West who once arrested President Grant for fast driving on Vermont avenue", but says that he was not taken to the police station. West, a former Union Army private who joined the MPD in 1871. The claim that Grant was arrested while in office is associated with William H. Crown of the Seventh Precinct, who was nicknamed ' Rarey' Crown for his "daring feats" in pursuing speeding horses. Several months later, the Fourth of July issue of the Richmond Daily Dispatch reprinted a National Intelligencer article announcing that Grant was arrested a second time for speeding: "The General took the arrest very good humoredly, said it was an oversight, and rode over to the second Precinct station house and paid his fine." Participating in both 1866 arrests was Officer S. The Daily Richmond Whig and Staunton Spectator added that "it was a bad example in General Grant to violate a law, but a worse one to treat the officers of law with contempt". The National Intelligencer 's report was republished in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times. Several days later, Grant "acknowledged the service of a warrant for fast driving and appeared before the Justice of the Peace and paid the fine". Grant offered to pay the fine, but "expressed his doubts of their authority to arrest him and drove off". reported that while "exercising his fast gray nag" on 14th Street, Grant was detained for fast driving by two officers of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD). In April 9, 1866, when Grant was Lieutenant general (promoted later that year to General of the Army), the National Intelligencer of D.C. The image of Grant deferring to West has been cited as a symbol of the rule of law, including in a dissenting opinion at the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in children's education, and in discussions of presidential criminal immunity in the United States. Grant is characterized as resistant to police authority in the first narrative and as deferential in the latter two. Grant National Historic Site have questioned whether the event occurred. However, because of the lack of contemporaneous documentation in a competitive local media market, historians at the Ulysses S. After the MPD appeared to confirm the veracity of the arrest in 2012, a number of news media outlets accepted it as fact, although in some cases with reservations. Other accounts differ but generally involve a fine of similar value, the impoundment of the carriage, or both. In a 1908 profile in The Sunday Star-the sole detailed narrative of the event -West said that he arrested Grant for speeding in a horse-drawn carriage after a warning for doing so the day prior, and that Grant was brought to the police station, where he put up $20 (equivalent to $450 in 2021), which was forfeited the next day when Grant did not appear in court. West (died 1915) included the claim that he had arrested Grant in 1872. There does not appear to be contemporaneous evidence of an 1872 arrest, but from the 1890s onward, a number of newspaper articles about Officer William H. ![]() īoth 1866 arrests were reported by the D.C. president to have been arrested while in office. While of questionable historicity, the third is the best-known if it did occur, this would make Grant the only U.S. The first two arrests were in 1866, when Grant was commanding general the third is said to have occurred in 1872, when Grant was serving as the 18th President of the United States. Grant, who led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War, was widely known for his prowess as a horseman. Grant by officers of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD), all for speeding by horse. ![]() There are three reported arrests of Ulysses S. Bonner racing in a carriage in New York, as depicted in an 1868 lithograph
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