Editing Lager Beer Riot (section)

== Outcomes ==
The Lager Beer Riot lead to a compromise in which the city council lowered the liquor license fee from $300 to $100. The council decided not to release those already imprisoned for not paying the $300 fee, but most of those arrested during the riot were released and not charged.<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 24</ref>

The Lager Beer Riot illustrated the risk German immigrants were willing to bear to protect German saloon owners who they perceived as leaders of their community. The mayor's temperance policy thus united German property owners, who could have been a natural ally of the mayor because of their strong interest in order, with working-class German immigrants.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894 (Working Class in American History)|last=Mitrani|first=Sam|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2013|ISBN=9780252038068|pages=33}}</ref>

In addition to the economic implications of the riot, there were compelling socio-cultural reasons for German immigrants to protest the newly instated ordinance. Mitrani posits that, "To the German and Irish immigrants, drinking beer on Sundays was an orderly and habitual way to spend their one day off.... Yet on a deeper level, this clash over drinking marked the opening salvo in a struggle over how the new class of wage workers would spend their time."<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 15</ref> The riot over beer represents a larger issue of a nativist approach to control the immigrant working class. Drinking, particularly on Sundays, was considered unacceptable. Closing taverns on Sundays and raising the cost of liquor licenses was a way to enforce what was considered acceptable behavior.

While the new policies were an attempt to control the immigrant class, the events of the riot proved to be a call for a new type of order. Within a week of the riot, a committee was formed and worked with the city government to pass a series of reforms that ultimately resulted in the reorganization of the Chicago Police Department.<ref>Mitrani, Sam (2013). The Rise and fall of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894. University of Illinois Press. p. 16</ref>

The lasting effects of such a traumatic event would influence Chicago for decades to come. Tensions continued to increase between those who advocated temperance and those who enjoyed the pastime. According to Sam Mitrani, "the bulk of those arrested [had] working-class occupations...[and] the only arrestees who were not part of or tied to [Chicago's] growing working class were four ministers, eight doctors, and four lawyers."<ref name=":0" />