Sharpton is Back

[Ben]

Sharpton hasn't been in the news much since Trump, which is surprising to me, but never fear - he's getting himself back in the news. He's defending the Irish against Trump's racism.

http://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2017/08/01/maybe-just-sit-this-one-out-al-sharpton-protests-trump-over-this-type-of-racial-slur/

[Perd Hapley]

Resist he much!

[AmbulanceDriver]

I swear it's turned into a contest to see who can be the most obnoxious about whatever perceived "insult" they can think of.

[Scout26]

As a resident Irish-American of this board, I will point out that we Irish worked drank long and hard, and spilled a lot of blood to get Police Wagons named after us.

[Hawkmoon]

I suppose I have led a sheltered life. I'm 73 years old, have known about the term "paddy wagon" ever since I can remember ... and I never had any idea that it was a reference to the Irish.

Nobody ever tells me nuttin'.

[Perd Hapley]

Speaking as someone of Irish ancestry, I don't know of any other name for a paddy wagon than, uh, paddy wagon, so I'm not sure what they wanted him to say. That being said, the last thing we need is more talk about anything Irish. The celebration of all things "Celtic," by people who wouldn't know a Celt if they ran across him in any of the regions of central Europe the Celts historically inhabited, has gotten right out of hand.

[grampster]

When I was a police cadet (age18) in 1962 I used to lurk on the dusty dark 3rd floor of our medieval police HQ on Saturdays.  There were tons of old records.  The records were so old that some of the mug shots were drawings.  I found pics of horse drawn paddy wagons and there still were ropes and block and tackle equipment up there for when they lowered hay from the 2nd floor above the bay where the horse drawn paddy wagons came in with prisoners to the jail cells.  (Talk about tombs)  Though in Grand Rapids, we had more Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, German and Dutch.  Not too many Irish.  Probably should have called them Polski or Lugo wagons.

[Perd Hapley]

http://www.dailywire.com/news/19266/washington-post-was-very-upset-trumps-paddy-wagon-hank-berrien

Merriam-Webster says that “paddy wagon,” meaning police vehicle, came into use in 1909. By then, the Irish had become a significant part of law enforcement. Nearly 70 percent of the New York police force was made up of Irish immigrants or first generation Irish Americans, according to author Richard Zacks. So it may be that “paddy wagon” had less to do with the prisoners thrown into the back than with the police driving in front. Indeed, by the 1960s, civil rights protesters had adopted “paddies” as a generic term for the police.

[Scout26]

http://www.dailywire.com/news/19266/washington-post-was-very-upset-trumps-paddy-wagon-hank-berrien

I would bet that it was one group o' "Paddys" tossing another group o' "Paddys" into the back of the police wagons...