White, black, Asian or Hispanic, children and grandparent all deserve to live in a peaceful environment and I won't allow a bunch of crumb balls to come into my neighborhoods and take that right away from them.
― Frank Rizzo
Frank Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American politician and police officer who served as the mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. Before he was mayor he was a police commissioner from 1968 to 1971. Rizzo is a controversial figure in Philadelphia history, some see him as a Villain for his alleged use of police brutality when he was Philadelphia's police commissioner, and for his perceived tyrannical antics as mayor of Philadelphia. While others see him as a hero for being a tough, no-nonsense, tough-on-crime, civil reformer who did everything in his power to make Philadelphia a safe community to live in, and to kick out corruption in City Government.
Contrary to Popular belief. Frank Rizzo was not a racist man, in fact Rizzo was personally responsible for promoting several African-American officers during his tenure as commissioner. As deputy police commissioner, he ended practices that had kept African American officers from manning patrol cars, after Philadelphia's first African-American police captain, James Reaves, had accused the department of being racially biased. It was during Rizzo's tenure as deputy commissioner that black and white officers assigned to the city's African American neighborhoods worked in tandem in an attempt to reduce friction between civilians and police forces. As commissioner, Rizzo's department had one of the largest percentages of African American officers among large U.S. police departments, with 20% in 1968, at a time when other departments had little if any success in recruiting African-Americans.
November 17, Misquotation[]
On, November 17, 1967. Frank Rizzo led a group of police officers to crack down a riot at the School Administration Building in Philadelphia. An Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, George Ingram reported that Rizzo shouted "Get their asses!" when directing his officers to beat down the rioters. Overtime the adjective "Black" was falsely inserted into the quote. Many critics of Rizzo often use this misquotation to prove that he was a racist, but this is nothing but a false urban legend. The same reporter clarifies this in a magazine years later.
"Simon van Zuylen-Wood's piece on Frank Rizzo Jr. I"Franny," Junel misstated a quote made by Rizzo's father outside the old School Administration Building on November 17, 1967. As an Inquirer reporter back then, I was standing next to Commissioner Rizzo when he ordered police to crack the heads of unruly students demanding black history courses. His angry directive to his men was, "Get their asses!" It was included in my story on the shocking incident on the front page of the next day's Inquirer. Somehow, in the retelling of the incident over the years, the adjective "black" was inserted and became part of the urban legend of Frank Rizzo. But he never said it that way on that day, as I pointed out in an Inquirer op-ed years later, after I'd left the newspaper."
- George Ingram
Heroic deeds[]
- In 1946, when he was a patrolman he bravely ran into a burning home along with his partner to rescue a family of three. afterwards he told reporters that the father (who was intoxicated at the time) was the real hero. Rizzo had refused recognition for this deed.
- In early 1951 Rizzo met a black woman waiting for the bus in stormy weather. Despite not knowing each other Rizzo offered her a ride to work, they became quick friends and for many years, on every morning that rained he would drive her to work, and make sure she got there safely.
- In the summer of 1966, when a black family was moving into an all-white neighborhood. Rizzo personally went there to observe the police officers sent to protect the new family. He wanted to make sure the officers were complying with department policy, and to defend the family if a violent altercation were to happen.