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The Brutal Legacy of Frank Rizzo, the Most Notorious Cop in Philadelphia History
The former police commissioner and mayor known to fellow cops as "The General" has been dead for decades, but Philadelphia is still grappling with his controversial, racially-tinged policies.
Frank Rizzo as mayor in 1977. Photo courtesy Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries
Say the name Frank Rizzo at any old-school dive bar in Philadelphia and you're liable to start a conversation. The former mayor and police commissioner who reigned through most of the 70s might be described as a "tough guy"—or maybe a "racist asshole."
Immediately recognizable from his hulking figure and spiffy threads, Rizzo traded on white working-class fears of the city's rising violent crime rate, and made no bones about his penchant for cracking heads.
The former police commissioner and mayor known to fellow cops as "The General" has been dead for decades, but Philadelphia is still grappling with his controversial, racially-tinged policies.
I think that Philadelphia and Boston are both excellent and historically incomparable. places. Disparaging either place because of a football game seems kind of grade school-ish.
You are a silly goose if you participate in slandering either of these wonderful places!
WILSON GOODE WAS MAYOR OF PHILLY. HE ORDERED WHAT HAPPENED..
HE IS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN.
KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKIN ABOUT BEFORE YOU START.
HORRIBLE PART OF PHILLY HISTORY. WILSON GOODE, HORRIBLE MAYOR, BURNED DOWN A LOT OF PEOPLE'S HOMES, PUT THEM IN THE STREET.
HOWEVER THEM 'ACTIVISTS' HAD MANY SHOOTOUTS WITH THE POLICE, KILLED AN OFFICER.
WRONG SUBJECT TO BRING UP.
Know what you're talking about before you start. Nothing about the mayor here.
"I grew up in Philly during and after the bombing. My elementary school was the kind of place where we we learned Afrocentric songs and teachers dressed in kente cloth, while my high school was overwhelmingly black. We never discussed it in class, either.
What gives? It's seems incredible that so many people had never heard about the time American law enforcement bombed U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, which, on top of the deaths, left dozens of bystanders' homes destroyed in an uncontrolled fire that the police commissioner told firefighters not to put out right away. The details are so extreme, so over-the-top. How have we forgotten this?"
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