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576 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2021
Unofficially, the vice squad ran a shakedown operation that hauled in millions of dollars in bribes annually. It was a plush position for those who weren’t prudish. The stream of graft from vice was so steady and so lucrative that it required excellent political connections and a kickback of several thousand dollars to wrangle a spot on one of the plainclothes squads spread throughout the city. (p. 129-130)
Prohibition had the perverse effect of transforming the sleazy underworld of vice into a cutting-edge counterculture. “Slumming” had long been the hobby of sporting men, raffish intellectuals, and wealthy young rakes who had so much money and social status that they could afford to flout conventional morality. Now anyone who wanted a glass of beer was forced consort with criminals. (p. 188)