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Dec. 6, 1938: Mayor Fiorella La Guardia applied a sledgehammer to hundreds of slot machines as part of a continuing effort to curb gambling and guns. “The Mayor took a sledgehammer and swung it lustily five times over a slot machine,” reported The Times in 1935. “Here you see a splendid exhibition of police energy. The Police Department, with the cooperation of the five District Attorneys, has been able to put the fear of the Lord into the gangsters. Let this be a notice to them that they will be treated just as roughly as we are going to treat these implements,” he said. Photo: The New York Times