What was even more fatal was that along with the rise of these forces, several banks in New York had already been robbed, losing funds totaling at least hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
This dealt a heavy blow to the banking industry that was already struggling to survive. The banks that had their funds stolen were forced into bankruptcy, as most small and medium-sized banks could not afford to cough up another few hundred thousand US dollars to cash out the people who wanted to withdraw their money.
Every time these bank-robbing forces succeeded, they would throw a big handful of banknotes, inducing unemployed crowds and vagrants on the streets to frantically scramble for the money—also serving as a convenient aid to their escape.
Facing these money-desperate unemployed masses and vagrants, the American Police were also helpless.