Unsettling Streets: The Origins of Policing in NYC

NYC cops are famous, or you could say notorious, worldwide. So are Manhattan’s edifices of justice, from the streets leading between precincts and prisons, to the lofty colonnades holding up the ceilings of the Supreme Court. But have you ever walked through those Manhattan “movie sets” and thought about how they got there and wondered: “Where does the NYPD come from?”

Walking northwards from City Hall, through the plazas of justice infrastructure around Foley Square, past the courthouses at Chinatown’s end, we’ll begin to connect the dots.