James Knowles Ferguson v. Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia

[Jacquerie]

There was a time when some mayors and police commissioners knew their duty. First and foremost, protect lives. Second, protect property.

Unlike Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, Frank Rizzo knew how to keep the peace and what to do with rioters.

"Throughout his career, Mr. Rizzo seemed to embrace controversy. "I'm going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot," he once told a newspaper reporter."

Check out the following 1991 NYT column on the life of Philly Police Commissioner and Mayor Frank Rizzo:

Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia Dies at 70; A 'Hero' and 'Villain'

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Doesn’t the historical record show that Attila the Hun was a faggot?

[Menehune56]

I never realized Mayor Rizzo was a democrat. Wow!

[gusty]

Before anyone waxes all poetic on Frank Rizzo, read this recent article first.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/385518/who-lost-cities-kevin-d-williamson

[TexasGator]

“Unlike Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, “

I thought the mayor was trying to protect till the governor (and Holder) took over.

[Vesparado]

If so, wouldn’t we be calling him “Attila the Hung”?

[RedMDer]

FReepers, Let's go!
Everyone needs to donate!
All contributions are for the current quarter expenses.

[Prov1322]

No one should "romanticize" the reign of Frank Rizzo as Police Commissioner. He was not a Constitutional, law and order guy...he was an iron-fisted, power-hungry fascist.

No one should confuse his sometimes interesting musings about hippies, protesters, drugs and race rioters as those of a genuine conservative.

Lived in Philly during that time.

[Albion Wilde]

For all his flaws, Rizzo ran a great city. It has gone straight into the toilet ever since, and even the main Center City and Downtown areas, once accessible in easy walking distance to absolutely everything, have become uninhabitable for average middle-class people.

Statue of Frank Rizzo in front of the Municipal Servies Building in the center of Philadelphia

Mural of Frank Rizzo on the side of a shop in the 9th Street Italian Market

Women in Philadelphia before the 2000s loved their three Franks: Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon and Frank Rizzo. One of the most popular sites for Italian-Americans, entertainment lovers, politicos and Mafiosi was the old Palumbo's nightclub and Nostalgia Room restaurant in the Italian Market. Nostalgia's walls were lined with framed, autographed b&w photographs of all the great lounge singers who had entertained at Palumbo's: Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Patti Page, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr, Rosemary Clooney, Al Martino, Connie Francis, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, Frankie Avalon, on and on.

Nostalgia served the best Neapolitan-Sicilian food and absolutely scrumptious Italian bread hot from Sarcone's bakery ovens several doors up 9th street. Linguini and clams, mussels, sausage and spaghetti, baked ziti, rigatoni with meatballs, scungilli, calamari, lasagne, eggplant parmesan... Throughout his political career, Frank Rizzo used to pop in for lunch or dinner, and usually walked amongst all the tables and along the bar, shaking hands with every patron of the restaurant before he departed.

In 1994, Palumbo's and Nostalgia were destroyed by arson. Just when the fire appeared to have died down, someone relit it -- three times. It was the passing of an era.

[Prov1322]

Nostalgia served the best Neapolitan-Sicilian food and absolutely scrumptious Italian bread hot from Sarcone's bakery ovens several doors up 9th street. Linguini and clams, mussels, sausage and spaghetti, baked ziti, rigatoni with meatballs, scungilli, calamari, lasagne, eggplant parmesan...

You know that my tastes are far more complex...like a neighborhood Pizza Steak and a Greenman's Eyetalian Hoagie...

[Jacquerie]

I lived two miles from the 1967 Detroit race riots.

Those few nights made an impression on a thirteen year old mind.

Unlike Detroit, Cleveland, Newark, and other cities, there were no riots, no mayhem, no property destruction in Philly in that awful summer of ‘67.

Whatever his subsequent shortcomings, Commissioner Rizzo protected the law abiding from the barbarians.

[gusty]

“Philadelphia, for example, has not had a Republican mayor since the Truman administration. It did enjoy the services of Mayor Frank Rizzo, a Democrat who endorsed Nixon in exchange for federal handouts and who governed in the progressive style: He converted a private utility into a public one and promptly turned it into a patronage machine, he was close with the labor unions and raised the city’s wage tax to fund spending on transportation and infrastructure projects, worked for economic benefits for the elderly, etc. He was a classic welfare-statist Democrat — and a man who, as police commissioner, famously promised to “make Attila the Hun look like a fag.””

I post this quote from the article I posted above. For my money guys like him were the worst of the worst hacks. He and his contemporaries through there union and public sector cronyism is what started the slide into destruction. He might not have finished the job, but he was key in starting it.

[blackdog]

But it took W. Wilson Goode, a black mayor, to firebomb and kill the MOVE group, and then burn down six square city blocks of homes in the process.

Boy do I miss Irv Homer.

I left Philly 25 years ago.

[kitchen]

"Throughout his career, Mr. Rizzo seemed to embrace controversy. "I'm going to make Attila the Hun look like a faggot," he once told a newspaper reporter."

Missing here is the rest of the quote, '... when I'm back in office, ...' Rizzo fully intended to exact severe revenge against those who had abandoned him and his last campaign.

[blackdog]

"No one should "romanticize" the reign of Frank Rizzo as Police Commissioner. He was not a Constitutional, law and order guy...he was an iron-fisted, power-hungry fascist. No one should confuse his sometimes interesting musings about hippies, protesters, drugs and race rioters as those of a genuine conservative. Lived in Philly during that time."

My experiences and timeline as well. I remember the gangs of unmarked cops who would roam our streets near his house in Chestnut Hill. He thought he was a Tony Soprano kinda guy.

[Albion Wilde]

I agree; there is almost no Democrat worth electing, in a just world. However, it’s an unjust world, and we have choices like McCain or Romney vs Obama. So, fwiw, Philadelphia enjoyed a relatively American style of corruption under Rizzo, versus the commie socialist homosexual corruption that came after Rizzo.