He once told Philadelphia to vote white. Now the protests have brought his statue down.
PHILADELPHIA — The Frank Rizzo statue, as embattled as the figure it commemorates, was removed in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The perpetual protest magnet and 10-foot likeness of the late-1960s and '70s Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner was hoisted onto a truck, ending its stormy two-decade reign over a raised plaza facing City Hall.
During weekend demonstrations over the brutal death of George Floyd, the bronze 3,000-pound colossus was tagged with the word “facist” (misspelled, though the meaning was clear), bathed in crimson paint, attacked with hammers andeventually protected by a phalanx of city police, armed with truncheons, Rizzo’s accessory of choice.
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