My Memory of the Billy Club - Dr. Ed Iannuccilli
Monday, May 23, 2022
I don’t remember police officers carrying guns when I was a kid growing up in Providence. Very likely they did. What I remember is the friendly and familiar police officer who carried a billy club as he walked his beat along Academy Avenue. My eyes were fixed on his skills twirling the club.
We lingered at our comfortable spot at Jigger Higgins’ Variety sipping cold Nehi Orange sodas after a simmering summer afternoon of sandlot baseball. Our favorite store was smack in the middle of the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood where the most exciting thing that happened was the bonfire in the middle of the street on the 4th of July. That’s why the only thing our friendly police officer needed, if he needed anything, was a billy club. And for nothing more than to connote authority. We were a benign group.
With a smart step and a pleasant, “Hi, kids, how ya doin’ tonight?” He strolled to the whirring tempo of his whirling stick which snapped like a small drum when it hit the palm of his hand. He never missed a catch. His blue uniform underscored the influence of the club; his way of communicating authority.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTI once held a club that my uncle owned and realized that it was a good enough weapon. It was a firm, hard stick, long enough to cause quite enough injury in the hands of a trained officer, especially if he struck vulnerable areas.
Known by many names like a truncheon, nightstick, blackjack, or baton, the stick is as old as the profession itself. So, where did the name ‘billy’ arise? Did someone named Billy swing one? Likely not. There are other explanations.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the name billy club was first used in 1848 as slang for a burglar’s prying tool of choice, the crowbar. Its name for a policeman's club was first recorded in 1856, perhaps a play on the term bully club.
In 1829, Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel formed London's first police department. The officers, known as Bobbies . . . as in Robert's men . . . were armed only with a club. The sight of officers twirling the sticks was enough of a preventive measure for the would-be criminal. In moments of stress, the officer might even summon colleagues by rapping his stick on the ground or against a pipe.
Mastering the club was once a point of pride for officers, who might even use them for communication, and guiding traffic. But the clubs have not been used since the 1960s because their overuse created a negative, intimidating image following the Civil Rights Movement.
I find it so interesting that as an innocent of the 40s and 50s, even though I appreciated to a certain extent the power of the club, I found it a source of entertainment, admiring the man who yielded it. “Hi, kids, how ya doin’ tonight?” Snap twirl, snap twirl, snap twirl.
Dr. Ed Iannuccilli is the author of three popular memoirs, “Growing up Italian; Grandfather’s Fig Tree and Other Stories”, “What Ever Happened to Sunday Dinner” and “My Story Continues: From Neighborhood to Junior High.” NOW, he has written his fourth book "A Whole Bunch of 500 Word Stories."
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