https://nyspcc.org/

https://nyspcc.org/about-nyspcc/our-team/

Directors

Tom Califano

Phil Chronakis

Vicky Cornell

Mikal Finkelstein, MD

Shane P. Foley

Neil Friedman

Maarit Glocer

Tania Higgins

John Lowry

Owen May

Seth D. Rosensweig

Gregory Taylor

3422

Jul 12, 2019 10:26:09 AM EDT

Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 69f914 No. 7011225

[New York Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children]

Q

https://nyspcc.org/what-we-do/

What We Do

The NYSPCC's caring team of highly-skilled clinicians and professional staff provides an array of services to children, families, child welfare professionals, and other concerned community members. These services include therapeutic supervised visitation; trauma-focused counseling; school-based child sexual abuse prevention workshops; crisis debriefing for child welfare staff; best-practice training, and advocacy.

Advocacy

Since its founding in 1875, the NYSPCC has been in the forefront of advocacy efforts for laws and policies that seek a safer and healthier environment for all children. We engage in advocacy efforts on a broad variety of fronts, including legislative advocacy, litigation support, and public awareness campaigns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Society_for_the_Prevention_of_Cruelty_to_Children

The founding of the NYSPCC prompted the rapid formation of other societies around the United States. By 1880 there were 37 societies; 162 in 1901, and by 1910 there were 250 societies in operation.[8]

One impact of the NYSPCC's activities was an increase in the number of men in the legal system being prosecuted for sexual crimes against children; the Society campaigned successfully for a reassessment of the sexuality of children and their difference to adult women.[6]

It has been argued, however, that these initial years were not a campaign for children's rights, but partly motivated by a desire to control the working classes and instill conservative values.

Bergh himself spoke in favor of flogging children as a form of discipline at the first meeting of the NYSPCC.[2]

However it is certain that the NYSPCC helped to establish a more humanitarian definition of child cruelty.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bergh

One of the tasks he undertook was to pass a law that would prohibit the use of dogs for the monotonous and hot task of turning grills in restaurants. Later, when Bergh went to visit restaurants to monitor law enforcement, he discovered that numerous restaurants had replaced dogs with black children.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-Wood_Cemetery

"Weep Not", one of John Moffitt's sculpted panels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall#Political_gangs_and_the_Forty_Thieves

Political gangs and the Forty Thieves

After Fernando Wood's losing reelection run for U.S. Congress in 1842, he left politics for a while to work on his shipping business. A power vacuum of sorts existed through the 1840s for Tammany Hall, which became preoccupied with fights between political gangs fighting over turf. These gangs included the Dead Rabbits, the Bowery Boys, Mike Walsh's Spartan Association, the Roach Guards, the Plug Uglies, the Wide-Awakes, and Captain Isaiah Rynders' Empire Club. Rynders was the leader of Tammany's Sixth Ward and a member of the General Committee who was also said to have been responsible for coordinating all political-related gang activity. Many of these leaders coordinated their activities from saloons, which became a target of prohibitionists and reformers.[44]

At the start of the 1850s, the city economy began to pick up and Tammany members would profit. The City Council of New York during these years would be known as the most corrupt up to this time. The new City Council of 1852 swept in Tammany politicians to replace the outgoing Whig ones, who did little with their power. The new council was made up of two sets of 20 members, a twenty-member Board of Aldermen and a twenty-member Board of Assistant Aldermen. This new council would be known as the Forty Thieves. Each Alderman had the power to appoint police (including precinct officers) and license saloons within his district. Together, the Aldermen possessed the power to grant franchises for streetcar lines and ferries. Each Alderman also sat as judge in criminal courts, determining who sat for juries and choosing which cases came to trial. On paper, these aldermen received no pay. A number of real estate deals followed with suspicious transaction amounts, including a purchase of a pauper's burial ground on Ward's Island and the sale of city property occupying Gansevoort Market near the western end of 14th Street to Reuben Lovejoy, an associate of James B. Taylor, a friend of many of the Aldermen. Other deals included expensive fireworks displays and bribes for ferry and railroad operations (Jacob Sharp for the Wall Street Ferry and various applicants for the Third Avenue railroad). Aldermen would also resort to creating strike legislation to obtain quick cash: a spurious bill would be introduced that would obviously financially harm someone, who would then complain to legislators. These legislators would then kill the bill in committee for a fee. As the press became aware of the Forty Thieves tactics, a reform movement instigated for a change in the city charter in June 1853 so that city work and supply contracts were awarded to the lowest bidder, franchises were awarded to the highest bidder, and bribery was punished harshly.[44]

1870–1900

Tammany did not take long to rebound from Tweed's fall. Reforms demanded a general housecleaning, and former county sheriff "Honest John" Kelly was selected as the new leader. Kelly was not implicated in the Tweed scandals and was a religious Catholic related by marriage to Archbishop John McCloskey. He cleared Tammany of Tweed's people and tightened the Grand Sachem's control over the hierarchy. His success at revitalizing the machine was such that in the election of 1874, the Tammany candidate, William H. Wickham, succeeded the unpopular outgoing reformist incumbent, William F. Havemeyer (who died shortly thereafter), and Democrats generally won their races, delivering control of the city back to Tammany Hall.[53] A noted statue of John Kelly is located in the hall, the work of Irish sculptor Robert Cushing.[54]