The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 146 - Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo

Episode Date: January 18, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Frank Rizzo, former police commissioner and mayor of Philadelphia. SOURCESTOUR DATESREDBUBBLE MERCH  

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Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about not Gary Gareth. Dave, okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are Queen Fakie of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do my thing. October 23rd 1920. You cool? Frank Lazaro Rizzo was born in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Okay. He was the first of four sons born to Ralph and Teresa. It says Teresa. Sure. Well, you know, Teresa is so basic. I really hope it was Teresa because Teresa is fucked up. Yeah. They lived in a two-story

row house. Ralph had started life as a tailor but then moved on to be a cop. Interesting. Yeah. Ralph was a tough dad who let his kids have it if they were up to no good. Okay. Frank once said one time my father caught me smoking, caught me flat out and he'd let me have it. He didn't know anything about slapping. He just waffled me. Oh, Jesus. Waffle is a different term. He didn't know anything about slapping. He didn't know anything. I don't know what waffling is. I mean, waffling would be like, I don't know. I'm gonna hit you. But he apparently has a different term for waffling. Well, waffling seems like you could punch holes

in someone, you know. Oh, maybe that's it. A little bit like a waffle. Okay. Yeah. Fair. Spread that syrup all over. Yep. South Philadelphia was an Italian neighborhood. Very tough neighborhood that would shape young Frank and give him the views he would hold on to throughout his life. Terrible news. As a kid, he said he didn't wander off his block very often because it was dangerous. Okay. That's always a good sign. Yeah. No, it sounds like going home is pretty safe. Well, it sounds like he's living in the Warriors. Yeah. Can't go over there. The baseball furious. Frank got his first job when he was just seven years old as a delivery boy. It's just I

mean, the world was so fucking crazy. Look at a seven year old my kid. Imagine it's just it's just a couple of months or being seven and I wouldn't hire him to do shit. Oh, why? He wouldn't be able to handle it. Then next he would get a job as a butcher's apprentice at eight that started cut off his town's head, Frank. There you go. Oh, fuck. And at nine, he was an architect. As Frank grew, he gained a reputation as one of the toughest, toughest fighters in the neighborhood. At the same time, not so great at school. Well, but here we are complaining about how his dad beat the shit out of him and look what happened. Right. He's a tough

fighter. He's a tough fighter. You got it. You got it. I mean, you got to say that. I mean, his dad maybe knew what he was doing. Yeah, he's turned him into something. Right. Exactly. You got a Balboa that boy. That's what we're talking about. He ended up dropping out of high school when he was a senior and and that gave him a nice chip on his shoulder for the rest of his life. He spent his life disliking intellectuals. It's always a good sign. It's always a good sign for a gentleman who doesn't like intellectuals. A smarty fucker. Smarty was through like reading books. Yes, I'm just reading. What seems to be the problem? Frank's brother said,

quote, he felt that book learning wasn't what he needed. Well, I'm going to also say that his brother wasn't necessarily cracking a lot of books either. Book learning ain't what Frank needed. Okay. He needed fist teaching. He's a fist man. He's a fister. Right. Take that back. Take him. Take all that back. Sorry. I'm going to re quote myself. He was not a fister. Frank did eventually get an equivalently equivalency diploma so he could do something besides being a butcher or punching things. Sure. He did what a lot of dropouts do and he joined the military, the Navy to be exact. All right. But he didn't last long because he

came down with incipient diabetes. Incipient diabetes. That is a form of diabetes where your body can't regulate how it handles fluids. This causes constant thirst and you pee way more than a normal person. Well, it sounds like a treat. How was your lemonade? I'm pissing my pants. I can't stop drinking and peeing. I'm so thirsty. And you're just like drinking as you're pissing. If anybody, if I wrote a biography about him, I would call it drinking and pissing. The Frank Rizzo story. The story of a waffled child. In 1943, Frank got married to Carmela Silvestri, a pale small woman. Oh boy. Geez. She better be

well-behaved. Yep. Then Frank joined the Philadelphia police just like his dad a few weeks later. Okay. He was just 22 years old at this point, but he did, but like in his South Philadelphia neighborhood, he quickly made him a name for himself as a cop. Okay. He was put on the beat in North Philly in an area known as Swamp Poodle. No, Swamp Poodle. Swamp Poodle? Or Swamp Oodle. Swamp Oodle. Could be Swamp Oodle or could be Swamp Oodle. I like all of them. I like all two. Or Swamp Oodle. Well, that's different. Swim, Dougie. It was an Irish area. Okay. Frank wasn't big on taking shit. I know one of his first days on the

job, an Irish sergeant said, hey, dago to Frank. And Frank pulled him aside and told him if he ever said that to him again, he'd kill him. Baby steps. Just cop to cop. Yep. Just quick cop to cop aside. Not as hard to do when you were as big as Frank. He was 6'2 and weighed over 250 pounds. All right. Big boy. Yeah. Big boy. Yeah. One night he arrested two robbery suspects, turned out to be friends of a Republican Party committee man. The committee man came down to protest the arrests and Frank then arrested him. Then award leader came down to give the young cop the what for and Frank arrested him. Okay, stop

going. Stop going there to help. It's not working. I mean, that's one of those situations too where someone's like, I'm gonna go in there and tell him in a two hours later, maybe I should go check on him. That's the bad idea, I think. While he was clearly having a good time, the police brass were not pleased with a rookie shaking things up and he was transferred. But the businessmen of the neighborhood liked how Frank operated and they lobbied for his return. The brass gave in and Frank was brought back. You don't want to vindicate him. Well, he's learning that his tough ways are working. Right. He started getting press his

rookie year when he was severely burned helping with the fire. He picked up his first of many nicknames in 1950. He was called the Cisco kid by his fellow cops after he jumped in the middle of a gang fight to break it up and ended up getting control over the melee. Sorry, how does that? I think he just leaped in a big pile and started throwing punches. Oh, it was a cartoon fight. Oh, I thought it was reality. Oh, I get it. You mean it's just one of those things where there's just a lot of dust and like you see fists kind of popping out of a cloud every now and then and then you jump in and right out of it and everyone's tied up in knots.

Right. Right. That's the exact thing. Over the years, he would also get nicknames like Big Bambino, the general, Hisana, Ratso Rizzo, and the Wop Cop by blacks in the city. I have to say the blacks did the best one. I should I should mention there might be some spicy language in this episode. Oh, boy. I got an email from someone who said, please use the N word. You used you said nigger and I wrote back and said it's an historical contest. I wasn't calling someone that name. Someone else in a story was calling some of that name. Yeah. And she basically told me to fuck off and that I was an animal. Listen, I

consider this a history podcast. And if people said stuff at the time, if you can't whitewash it, you can't whitewash the past because this is what we were right. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's just what language is. Listen, we said Diego and we're going to say it a lot. Oh, boy. I hope it's it when people are asking how they know what you didn't. How'd you go? He began moving up the chain of command because of Philadelphia Public Safety Director Samuel Rosenberg. Rosenberg was impressed with his record and promoted him to Sergeant, even though he had not taken the Sergeant

promotion exam. Fine. No, there's nothing wrong. It's inferred. Gave him a $3,800 raise and now he was in command of South Philly 33rd District Squad, where his dad worked. He's in charge of his dad while he's the Sergeant in charge of. Yeah. Yeah, I think he might be in charge of his dad. Oh, it's waffling time. Hey, Pop. Frank started cleaning up the organized crime in the district, even though they were connected to Republican leaders. The Republican leaders told Frank's dad they would deal with him when they were reelected, but that did not stop Frank. Okay. John Schultz, Sergeant of the

19th District Station, had this to say about Frank. He was a big burly gruff son of a bitch, a real macho tough guy. He was antagonistic and adversarial. He always thought he could do a better job than what you were doing. We had our arguments. He was a real cock-of-the-walk guy. I mean, maybe the best quote ever. He's a cock-of-the-walk guy. There are a lot of words. Oh, wait, is he saying cock-of-the-walk? No, he said cock-of-the-walk. Should have been cock-of-the-walk. In 1959, Frank began using police raids against strip clubs, beaten at coffee houses and gay bars. Well, to be fair, though, if you police

raid in a gay bar, a lot of people there could possibly think that it was just a great show. Take it off! Come on, boy! Come on! Take your Billy Club off! Here we go! Blow your whistles! Show me what I came for! Oh, yeah, handcuff me! Oh, yeah, read me the Miranda's, you dirty prick! Punching me in the face! I'm starting to think this is an arrest! The most famous of those raids was in February 1959 in a dimly lit den with a clientele of beatniks drinking espresso, playing chess, while listening to music and and having occasional poetry readings. Was this in my neighborhood? And they enjoyed tracks. Okay, all right, there it is. You can't beat them up for

drinking coffee. Well, actually. Neighbors started complaining, so Frank Rizzo and a bunch of cops stormed in and as Frank yelled, this is a raid. The cops demanded to see IDs of everyone inside, asked them why we're there, and managed to call a lot of them faggots. Interesting. Cool. Yep. He's a cool guy. Cool. No drugs were found, but that didn't stop Frank from hauling 20 of them into the police station and holding them overnight. For being guys. Accused. Hey, you were there. Huh? So get out of here. 17 were then fined for breach of the peace. But they didn't do it. They were doing nothing, right? No, they were doing nothing. Beatniks.

They were just beatnicking. Yeah, beatnicking seems kind of like a low key affair. No, not in Philadelphia. The raid didn't sit well with locals and a meeting was held with Frank and the police commissioner at the time. By the end of the meeting, most seemed to support Frank. Jesus. The owner of the cafe then filed a $25,000 suit against Frank for damaging his business. Okay. In court, the judge decided that the humorous cafe had become quote a gathering place for homosexuals and narcotic addicts. In the end, the suit was dismissed and the owner was convicted of running a disorderly house. Well, worst lawsuit

ever. There's backfiring and then there's this. But is this okay? So I'm noticing that there's a good amount of homophobia. There's some homosexual stuff happening. And okay, so this is kind of what he's leaning into now is just rounding up gay people. Yeah, well, you know, you can. Right. So might as well. Shouldn't. Might as well. He kept up the raids. One raid was justified because a teenager said she went to a cafe to meet lesbians. One journalist summed up what Frank Rizzo was up to quote creeps, kooks, liberals, phonies, fags, ultra liberals, lefties and bums. Rizzo's morality dictates that he must

save the city from the shaggy perverts whose politics or culture spread like dandruff. Now that sounds like the Warriors. That sounds like a bunch of Warriors gangs. Have you noticed liberals was used in there a few times? Yeah. The word was out for whites to be afraid of these people, especially the left and the city's growing black population. So basically anyone who's not white and straight, look the fuck out pretty much. Okay. And Frank kept moving up a month after the raid. Frank was named inspector. No drugs were found during the raid, as we already said, right? Yeah. But that's pretty typical for Frank's

thing. So he's named inspector. And then in January 1964, he's named deputy commissioner. Wait, so he's just hot on arresting and evidence is kind of like yeah, it doesn't matter. What he's doing is he's doing he's doing raids that get press. Right. Just showing that he's a kick-ass guy. And the cops are like, yeah, man. And promoting him. Well, look, we're here. But now he's deputy commissioner. Good. From August 28 to August 30, 1964, a race riot broke out. Then police commissioner Howard Leary did not handle it the way Frank wanted to handle it. Let me guess, he was trying to be peaceful sort of. He wanted to talk to him. Right.

Well, get out of here, liberal. Frank was pushing to just charge the rioters and do some damage. But commissioner Leary overruled him and let the riot burn itself out. Okay. A lot of white businesses, mainly Jewish in the area, were destroyed, but there were not many casualties. Afterwards, Rizzo called Leary a gutless bastard. Okay, so respect isn't high on his boss. Yeah, his boss. In May 1967, Frank got the chance to do things his way when he was named police commissioner. Jesus Christ. But what? What's happening? He's kicking ass and taking numbers. It feels bizarro. One of the first thing he did was to make up for

that pussy riot shit and let everyone know there was a new sheriff in town. A crowd of high school students took over a Philadelphia School administration building where they were peacefully protesting to force the administration into adopting a black history curriculum. Well, based on what we've heard, I have a feeling he's not going to like that. This is gonna go fine. I don't. This is the kind of stuff Frank loves. He loves to go in and have a convo. It sounded bad. Uh huh. And then you said it was on behalf of black people and it sounds really like it's he's not going to respond well. Rizzo showed up with his

cops and said, quote, get their black asses. Well, it's not very politically correct. The cops basically went ape shit. They clubbed male and female students, clergy, school officials and even onlookers. What are you looking at? Witnesses said it was a police riot. Oh my god. Quote, I saw Georgian who were fleeing the police lying on the ground with three patrolmen beating them unmercifully with clubs, said the director of the ACLU. A cop chased two black girls right outside of the window of the administration building where we were looking out and just proceeded to beat the crap out of them with a

night stick, said the school's PR manager. Let's just time out real quick. Yeah. Just say it is nice that we've gotten so far away from. Is it just like you hear something like this and you're like, oh, the past thing, you know, it's tough to hear. It's tough to hear. But at least, you know, now we've moved far past anything like that. Right. Now we're it just respect and and people listen to each other. And if people do a peaceful protest, listen, you let you let people protest. Yeah. You ask a lot of questions and then you make a decision. Right. Yeah. Right. Don't just shoot tear gas into people's stuff. No. No.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Frank denied saying anything that he had said anything racist and pointed out that the crowd had gotten out of control after two boys jumped on top of a car and ripped off the antenna. Well, I mean, you're not going to be able to get any FM. I mean, once an antenna comes off, it's all that's it. Right. Game over. Yeah. It's like it's like shooting a guy as far as I'm concerned. Absolutely. What really what he was really doing was sending a message to whites, working class whites, that he was the guy who could keep the rabble and their civil rights movement in line. Okay. So now it's gone beyond. So

now it progressive whites are also in the net. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. So it's anybody who sympathizes. It was not a fan. Yes. If you're a liberal and you're for the civil rights movement, you're the enemy. Those are the enemies. Cool. Many now think his rough tactics are actually would stop Philadelphia from being consumed by the rights that hit other cities in the late 60s after MLK was shot. So other cities burned. Philadelphia wasn't hit as hard. And many said it was because Frank's use of buses to move cop cops around the trouble spots and put out the fires. Fair. However, you still have to say that this is but

Martin Luther King being shot was based on the sort of attitude that people like what are you talking about? No, no, no, no, I think you know what I'm talking about. Like the idea that you're like, look, he handled the biggest black civil rights leader of all time got killed. He handled that pretty shut that shit down. He stopped that. So a lot of beatings. Yeah, he handled the collateral damage positively. Frank was top cop now and he was going to do what he wanted. That included framing people. Jesus. In February 1969, students for a democratic society led

a sit in at Penn. They were associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. So if I can get these names right, students for a democratic society, sure, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Well, something tells me you're going to want the violent Coordinating Committee to maybe just be around just in case. Well, they sound very threatening. Yes. Oh, these people look out. They took over College Hall for six days. After these successful protests, they started reaching out to other groups like the Black Panthers. No, I mean, Frank is Frank was not a fan of the Panthers of

that happening. The Black Panthers. He was. Yeah, he's not a fan of the Black Panthers or liberal whites talking to Black Panthers. This is all bad. Wouldn't don't you think like it would you think that if like as a white like a white dude, if you were like talking to the Black Panthers, you'd be like, and while we're on the same page, can I just say this is pretty fucking cool to be here? You guys, this is I'm glad you guys are rad. I mean, you I know you guys are pretty selective. Yeah. So to be here now, it's pretty cool. It's pretty awesome. Anyway, let's keep moving. Yeah. When do I get a nickname?

Your nickname is Whitey. I love it. Love it. Could it be Black Whitey? Nope. I won't push it. Okay, we'll see you later. Why don't you leave? All right. Thank you. So go and something else. No, no, I want to go, but I had something else to ask you going. Oh, yes. Do you guys need any snacks? Do you want anyone to prepare sort of maybe like a little like a little craft service? No, we don't have a table of stuff. I could just go get some chips and okay. Oh, hey, you know what? I'm pretty good at reading vibes and I don't want to make this weird. I'm just saying everybody gets hungry and I really know how to make a

good guac, but I'll move. I'll go Whitey out. I shouldn't have said out. I should have just said bye. So Whitey, bye Whitey or, you know, I think what I'm trying to listen to me right now just stammering like I'm crazy for being here. I shouldn't even God, I love you Black people. I just want to be Black. All right. Take care. Oh, it's a push. I thought it was a pull door, but it's actually a thanks. Take care. That was it's almost too true in March. Frank gave a story to the local media that the students for a democratic society were planning to blow up schools and they were handing out leaflets explaining how

to make Molotov cocktails in North and West Philadelphia was all a lie. Well, but okay, I assumed it was a lie because anybody who's planning anything like that doesn't the word. They don't they don't fly your bombings. Yeah, you don't fly it here. Put it under the windshield wiper, dude. You know what man? Here's a flyer. What's this for? Well, first of all, my band's playing on Thursday and we kick ass down at the bottom is how to make a Molotov cocktail. All right. So come check us out and then let's blow up some schools. Yeah. Yeah. Bombs and shit. Obviously a lie, but the groundwork was laid. He had a cop named

George. It's M F N F E N C L. Fensel. I guess. I'd say Fensel over Finkle. I think Fensel. Fensel. Yeah. Oh, we're going with Fensel. Fensel. So Fensel was running his department civil disobedience unit. His department's now the okay, right? Yeah. All right. Fensel always wore a black overcoat with a white armband emblazoned with the word police. That's just a really weird. Well, it's like it's at an animal house. Yeah. He showed up at protests and he would take pictures sometimes without film on the camera just to scare people. Wait. Oh, to scare them like he's gonna have evidence? Yeah. Okay. Or just we're watching you. Right.

Three members of the STS were about to go to the movies one night when Fensel and 10 other cops showed up. They were all wearing overcoats, which was weird because it was a very warm day. Everyone else in the city was wearing a t-shirt over. Overcoat is a really intimidating look. It's a fucked up crazy look. Let alone Fensel and 10 others. You're in fucking Philadelphia. March around in the heat and the fucking overcoat. Yeah. You know, there had to be a couple guys who were like, Hey, can we not just leave this or can we just like a not overcoat? What about not overcoat? How about black t-shirts? Black t-shirt. Black t-shirts.

With that. The cops searched the apartment for a while. One STS kid was allowed to watch. Then the doorbell rang and one of the cops opened it. It was a camera crew from KYW. KKK News. Who were invited in. Wait, sorry, invited in? Yeah. So, so they the cops called the camera crew to come in as they searched this apartment. Okay. Which you always do when you do the search. For sure. Yeah. Because you know, you don't know what you're gonna find. Right. I feel like they know what they might find Dave. Then according one of the kids, quote, they finally got to the kitchen. I remember three or four of them forming a semicircle around the

refrigerator with their backs effectively walling it off from view. And then they were like, What's this? And they pulled out this big tin can of C4 plastic explosives that they were keeping in the fridge. Oh my god, I meant to eat the cake. I ate the C4. Oh, fuck. I woke up in the middle of the night famished. Fuck man. So it might have been planted. Maybe. Maybe. Then they pulled the fridge out from against the wall and and produced three lengths of pipe, some blasting caps, and a small quantity of gunpowder. Okay. But can I say this? Having when you move into a place sometimes that already has a fridge. You don't really pull it out to

clean it. That could be the previous tenant. It could have been a plumber. So true. All the SDS kids are arrested. But as became a pattern with Frank Rizzo, the case started to fall apart in court. Fensil testified that he had no proof of the SDS involvement in any plot to blow up national landmarks or that such a plot existed. They basically said they were going to blow up the Liberty Bell. Wait, who said that? The cops. That's what the cop the cop said. They were going to blow up the Liberty Bell. That's what they thought the kids were going to do was blow up the Liberty Bell. Yeah. Doesn't it have a huge crack in it? Yeah, it doesn't fucking matter.

It's stupid. You just hit it with a hammer. It's the stupidest thing to blow up in the world. We're going to blow up the Liberty Bell. Take that, motherfuckers. Blind people won't know the time anymore. It's just so fucking. And then Fensil said that the police had never dusted the bomb making materials for fingerprints to prove the SDS kids had handled them. Well, who else would have handled them? I mean, but you do that a lot. Who else would? Who's other fingerprints? If you find C4 and pipes in someone's house with explosives, you don't dust over fingerprints. It's in their house. Money. Oh, and the cops hadn't worn gloves to keep their fingerprints off the materials. So a lot of a lot of naysayers will call that

convenient. But I just think, you know, obviously they're getting some stuff trying to get some stuff done really quick. You got to move. Also, the KYW footage of the search went missing from the police station. Well, I'll be honest. There's some now. There's some shady stuff happening, maybe. That's maybe a little bit. So they invite a news crew to film them and then like, yeah, we look shitty on that. Yeah, well, that looks that looks really obvious. Look, you can see Tommy put it in there. And you can take it out of his coat. I didn't know that I was filming. The charges were thrown out. Why? Today, if you are a Philadelphia cop, you can get the Fensil Award quote bestowed on a police officer who brings a unique blend of

courage, integrity and determination to the job. What? Why? Frank definitely knew how to go after African Americans. In 1970, the Black Panthers declared war on police nationwide. Then on October 29th, a Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed in Fairmount Park. Frank didn't need any evidence to know who did it. He blamed the Black Panthers and went down and arrested 14 of them at their headquarters. The jungle, right? That's where the Panthers are? They invited the press down when they were arrested. And then they stretch strip search the bed in the street while photographers took pictures. That is so fucked up. What? That's really fucked up. What? You can't strip search a bunch of guys in the street anymore? That's exactly

what my point is, yes. That really is so fucked up to not, I mean, look, you frame, okay, sir, you're framing people. Fine, frame them. Yeah. But you're gonna fucking do that in the streets? Was nobody like, excuse me, can I see that badge again? You're sure? Let me bite it. The next day, a picture of a naked black, a picture of a naked black man standing while cops held shotguns on them was on the front page of the Philadelphia Daily News. I'm dying to know what this headline is going to be. And then went nationwide. I don't know what the headline was. But is it like when that happens, is it? Are I mean, are people like, oh, man, fucking Black Panthers are people like, that's real fucked up. Oh, no, people are like,

that's fucking awesome. We're teaching our lesson. Okay, that's why I think I are you shitting me. He did exactly what people wanted to do. I think you could hear the balls. Humiliate. And like, these are got these are Black guys who are, you know, gaining power, not standing up for all the fucking bullshit that's going on. They're walking out with guns, they're they're finally fucking stand up for themselves for 200 years of just fucking horrendous or shit. Right. And so you teach them this is old time fucking slavery shit. You know, it sounds like they played on fear back then, which is interesting. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. Good thing we anyway. So of course, you can imagine if someone did that today, how many

assholes Trump supporters would be like, fuck yeah, man, show them, show them. It's the same fucking thing. Yeah, I bet you. Yeah, it's true. In under week, all the charges against the Black Panthers were dropped. Yeah, okay. Eventually, a completely different group was convicted of the crime of shooting the cop. But the point was made. Well, you know, that is one of the great things about media in general is that the shock always sort of sticks more than the truth. Yeah. Right. He told the press that he thought what he thought should be done with people like them, quote, I don't know why we let idiots like them survive. Maybe the laws have to be changed. Whoa. These creeps lurk in the dark. They should be strung up. I mean, within the law.

Uh, many problems. Frank, can we talk to you over here? Frank, we just hired a PR person, and she would love to have a word with you. Hey, what's that? Hey, Frank, I said within the law. Right. After a long pause. Listen, string them up is tough, because I don't know if you know about the racial history. Oh, come on. I don't get a liberal girly girl. String them up maybe. Yeah, okay. It makes people maybe recollect. Did I ask for the gay opinions? Alrighty. I quit. My job. Okay. See you later, Lucy. Many blacks still said he wasn't racist. That he was actually a sadist. Oh, they thought he hated whites and blacks equally. In 1969, Frank told the owner of the Electric Factory, the city's

first rock club, quote, you brought these people to Philadelphia and you're going to pay for it. I'm going to make a parking lot out of this place. Out of the Electric Factory. It's a rock club. He's not a fan of the rock club. Just because, okay. He terrorized the patrons of the club for months trying to find narcotics. They found like one guy who had drugs out of 100,000 people. Well, do you need more evidence? Parking lot time. He finally had the club shut down because of, quote, the rise and fall of sounds. So he had them shut down because they took breaks between songs? Or just like it sounds like it sounds like there was sort of a Nirvana band playing there. Right. Okay. Quiet and then take it up and then take it down.

So they played? Yeah, they played music. Right. Okay. So while he ran the police force, Frank's budget increased from 60 to 100 million. You said increased, I'm sorry? Increased. His budget increased from 60 to 100 million. The number of cops rose from seven to 9,000 and he took care of his boys and they in turn backed Frank. He stood up for his cops. He made sure they got regular pay raises and did everything he could to improve their working conditions. Rizzo said the crime rate was the lowest of the country's 10 biggest cities. But the New York police commissioner accused Frank of sending up made up numbers to the FBI. Well, I'd be shocked if he didn't.

Okay. And Frank was just getting more powerful. In 1970, the mayor James Tate said he was retiring and that Frank was the de facto mayor. The mayor can't do that. The exiting mayor can't do that. That is not okay. What do you mean? It's not like the Dalai Lama. You don't just get to like pass it on. We have elections. When the press asked Tate if that was legal, he just laughed. He jumped out a window. He just laughed at him. Get the fuck out. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? That is funny. Frank's a man now. Let me write that down. How did you phrase that? That is very funny. So he's basically just mayor for a few months. Cool. Frank Rizzo officially announced he was running for mayor as a Democrat in 1971.

As a Democrat? Yeah, he's a Democrat. Okay. Look, I'm not even trying to say that either party is a good party, but that is a little... I mean, I know that he used to hate Republicans, but I thought maybe at this point he'd come around a little bit. Well, he's still working class, right? Union and all that shit. He's still that guy. Right. But this is after Robert Kennedy was killed, right? Uh, yeah. So you would think that at this point you had already sort of established that the Democrats were linked with progressive African American rights. Yeah, come on. Okay. Well, New York Times writer Nora Sayer went to Philadelphia during the election and wrote

a little bit about what she saw. At a backyard pool party event for Frank, she watched as a middle-aged housewife tried to ask Frank a question, but was immediately dragged out of the party as she shouted, help. Was that her question? Frank. Frank then gave a speech about creeps who don't get up till three in the afternoon and bums who don't work like the rest of us. So at this point, he just hates anything different than him. I mean, you can't fuck. I don't know how you can gentrify people who like to sleep in. He's the fucking, he's the voice of the guy who's just mad that shit's changing. Yeah. It sounds like he's pissed that he has a job. Yeah. He's mad John Hamm in Mad Men. Right. He's, he's mad, mad men. He's mad,

mad, mad, really mad, mad. Mad Max men. Outside on the sidewalk, the woman who was dragged out trembled saying she just wanted to ask Frank a question about what he will do about drugs. She's the mom of 14 year old and she was worried about drugs and schools. She waited outside a Sears two weeks ago to wait for Frank, but she was also dragged off when she tried to ask a question. On the sidewalk, one of Frank's assistant campaign managers asked her in a cartoonish Jewish accent, what are you doing here, Mrs. Cohen? Why don't you go away? Is that Jewish accent? Sound more charming. It sounds like the people who tried to hurt the Jews, but uh, same thing. Yeah. Well, I would say, you know, uh, yeah, regardless. So the reason why she was dragged out was because

she was a Jew. I mean, it seems that way. He just didn't like the way that he didn't like, he didn't like the Jewish voice. It's really getting very specific. The problems. Then another staffer asked, do you want the Zulus to take over our city? Then someone else made a comment about niggers and she was told to leave. Okay. So this, I mean, what? Those are his campaign people. Those are his peeps. Not hiding at all what they are. Nope. No, big, very transparent. This is your mind. Do you have anybody who's running for president? Oh, right. Hillary. The writer called Philadelphia the most frightened city she had ever seen.

Fear was in the air just as Frank wanted it. Quote, this city is the place to study the political use of fear, the value of scare tactics. Good. It's cool that now our country is the place to study that instead of just one area. Yeah, right? Yes. But fear, it just, you know, helped, helped him in his backers in 1970. He and Mayor Tate rechanneled 400,000. The city council had marked for gang control and a police overtime and armored police buses. Oh my God. In 1970, Frank said about the city, quote, it is exactly what it is, a war, almost as severe as the war that's going on in Vietnam. We've run a comparison, a couple of weekends in our city against the casualties in Vietnam. And surprisingly, we had more homicides and deaths and casualties

than they did in Vietnam. Okay, I'm sorry. Now, well, okay, is he, and there's not a good answer, but is he right now almost, is he bragging that they're killing more people? No, he's saying that their town is more dangerous than a war zone. Yeah, right. Because he needs to get in there and if he's made mayor, then that'll all be cleaned up. Oh my God. Even though he's been police commissioner for years. Yeah. And years. Yeah. And has not been judicious. Not at all. One of the known ways police did deal with gang members was to catch them and drop them off in a rival gang's turf. Whoa. What? Wow. Is that weird? Yeah. I don't know how that would. That doesn't seem like it's helping anything. I don't know how that would lead to the more deaths casualties thing. I know,

I think if you if you actually think about it, I think there is a correlation. Do you think so? Yes. Yeah, I think if you drop, I mean, that's so fuck. That's insane. It's insane. It's like putting a mouse in a fucking snake cage. First Frank ran in a primary against other Democrats. He called opponent Bill Green a fucking bum in front of reporters in front of reporters. Yeah. I mean, what do you think of Bill Green? He's a fucking bum. Next. And he bragged to the press that he had something on all the other candidates. That was one of his things. He used to tell detectives to quote, get me their weakness when he wanted to take a man down. And yet Frank's campaign manager described him as a big cuddly

bear. Yeah. Well, remember bears are often prone to a lot of violence. Awful creatures. They will murder you. Yes, they are murderers. He ran against Republican W. Thatcher, a long strife in the in the main election. Long strife put out papers on important issues facing Philadelphia. I mean, can we just say long strife is adorable right now? It's so adorable. It's just the cutest. He's like, no, here's the evidence. Oh, foolish man. I'm he put out papers on important issues facing Philadelphia and what he would do to fix this man. Frank refused to. He thought his campaign slogan of firm but fair was enough. That is also shining a turd calling it. So he didn't tell people what he was going to do. I see what I was putting out. See what you're doing, Dave.

Policies and information. Right. And he said firm but fair is enough. Who needs policy and information when you have emotional puppet strings? He won by more than 50,000 votes. He became the first Italian American Philadelphia mayor. He was voted in by working class residents of South Philly and other neighborhoods. It was estimated 20,000 Republicans switched over to vote for him. What were his numbers like in the black community? Oh, great. Real good. Yeah. Good. In 1971, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about Frank spying on political opponents. School Board president and former mayor Richardson Dillworth made the accusation. Others said the same. Frank had a group of reporters who always wrote positive coverage when he was police commissioner.

And when this story came out, he gave them all jobs. Jobs is what? In this administration. He gave them job civic jobs. Oh, so wait. So right. Okay. So he he promotes at right. He promotes the guys who are supposed to investigate. Right. Okay. So to many people, this seemed a little bit suspicious. What? Who are these idiots? And let's round them up and flog them. I don't know. But the problem was that he gave all the friendly reporters jobs and they were no longer reporters. So now that's a new class of reporters. So now new younger hungry reporters came in and the owners of the local papers changed. So all of a sudden, everyone is digging into Frank. Well, can he just keep hiring his way out of this? You guys are hired too.

Frank hired all the reporters. People started listening to his news conferences on the radio because they became so confrontational between the bullying mayor and the handful of reporters who are willing to take him on. Sorry, are you talking about viral radio? You got to hear this shit. He's just arguing. They're just arguing with each other. Listen, I mean, I would listen to that. Are you fucking kidding? But he still tried to win the press over on January 24th, 1972. Frank took the Philly press corps along to the White House when he went to see Richard Nixon. Nixon was a fan. Shocking. Oh, checkers loves the smell of you. He bragged that he had so much clout he could get all of the press into the Oval Office to meet the president. Oh, God.

The press waited in the briefing room while he met with Nixon. Then they were escorted into the Oval Office. Really? Andrea Mitchell, who was one of those Philadelphia reporters said, in a White House photo of that day, I'm the one hanging back watching Rizzo introduce my newspaper colleagues to the president. All your members being so overwhelmed at finding myself in the Oval Office that I forgot to take notes. But Nixon's secret Oval Office taping system captured the moment. They can see Rizzo here. You can hear Rizzo introduce me to the president saying, oh, and Andrea Mitchell, there is the political lady for KYW. It's crazy. I mean, he's a fucking politician at the end of it all. He knows what he's doing. Yeah. One day, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported

that police had shot an unarmed teenager in the back in West Philadelphia. The community was outraged. When a reporter called to ask if, if Frank would investigate the police, he said, quote, no, my men are right when they're right. And they're right when they're wrong. Well, you know, the first half had me because that's accurate. But wrong men aren't right. That's why we have the word wrong. Now, my guys, my guys are right when they're wrong. Anyone. The wrong rights. No, not see. There we are again. That's an oxymoron. In 1973, it was confirmed that he indeed did have a spy squad. What? Frank Rizzo? There were 33 cops trying to dig up crap on his opponents.

A 1974 report by the Pennsylvania Crab Commission charged the police force with systematic widespread corruption. Did you call them the Crab Commission? Did I say Crab Commission? I think crime commission, but I like Crab Commission better. Either one, as long as somebody's on his ass. Frank hadn't held the press conference when this came out. Frank hadn't held the press conference in four months because he was so annoyed by all the young reporters. The press conference on that day was live on local TV and the radio. The first question, first question. Andrea Mitchell asked the mayor about the police corruption report. Frank passed on the question. Does does he know how press conferences and said

he'd only answer questions on parking at the airport? Wait. Wait. I'm assuming there's some something with parking at the airport. You can't pass. He just had a giant report come out. It's not fucking charades from a crime commission saying he had systematic widespread corruption. No, I'm just here to talk about what's happening at the airport. Hey, none of this. We're talking about parking today. I think you'll find that we've put arrows in so people know which direction to park and which direction to exit. Ask me a question. Any more questions about parking? Cars all go in. Anyone got a question about park? Cars go in. Frontside. Not just parking anywhere too. Just the airport.

No parking. Rearsighting. So anybody. I will now field questions about parking at the airport. And that'll be that. Not a lot of hands going up. Anybody got in the back? You. Sorry. That's a hat. Never mind. I won't ask about this. Absolutely. Corruption. Yes. Corruption at parking at the airport. No. Moving on. Here we are here to talk about anything. We're here to talk about questions about parking at the airport. The press kept asking questions. Yes. There's disabled spots. So that's good. The press kept asking questions about the corruption and he finally stormed out after five minutes. I'm going to the airport. He was also harassing people. One activist for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

was arrested 17 times over a three month period. That is enough to make you leave the nonviolent committee. I'll go violent honestly. Oh fuck. I'm about to be so violent. Jesus Christ. What if we call it the Student Violent Coordinating Committee? I don't think I'll arrest you for that. I like where your head's at. Not one of those arrests led to a conviction. Jesus. Reporters started investigating juicy contracts that were being awarded to companies with city hall connections like the one recently awarded for airport construction and the new sports stadium. Wait. So now there's a chance that he won't be able to talk about parking at the airport. There's one topic he is going to. No. No topics. Okay. No. No. That's it. I'm here today to talk

about how to make a good egg salad. Anyone got questions on how to make an egg salad? Anyone? The state launched an inquiry into police corruption and then the head of the Democratic Party Peter Camille accused Frank of offering him a political bribe. Okay. He said Frank offered a trade of city contracts for the right to name the next candidate for district attorney. Wow. He did this in the bathroom of the Bellevue Stratford Hotel. Jesus. Frank was furious. Yes. At a press conference, he said Camille was lying. A reporter, Zach Stahlberg of the Philadelphia Daily News asked if Frank would take a lie detector test. No. He said yes. Whoa. Whoa. So did Camille. Whoa. Alrighty. So as Frank, a former police commissioner and mayor

was strapped into a lie detector machine in front of the press. Oh my god. He said, I have great confidence in the polygraph. If this machine says a man lied, he lied. Ew. This seems like a little too committal for our Frankie. The machine then showed he lied on six out of 10 questions. Somebody arrest this goddamn machine. You're under arrest. Beat it. The next day on the front of the Daily News, quote, Rizzo lied test show and it showed Camille didn't lie. The story was big enough to get picked up by the New York Times. So Frank didn't hold the press conference for two years. Well, lesson learned. That's how you do it. That really, but that is such a tactic that we, I mean, that is still pervasive. I mean, it's worse now, but

that's still the same thing. Like if you watch any of these debates, Republican or Democrat, there's just such avoidance for questions. They don't listen to questions. No, they don't give a shit. Well, then I called on it. So why would they just? Yeah, exactly. They're like, how would you fix this? Well, I'm not going to talk about that. I want to talk about what he talked about. Okay, I guess. Yep. But Frank didn't stop talking. He would still talk one on one with reporters while running for reelection. He told the reporter, quote, just wait until after November. You'll have a front row seat. I want to make a till the hon look like a faggot. Oh, geez. Good God. What does that even? That's on the record, by the way, Jimmy. Yeah. Oh, my

God. Sorry. One more time, Frank. I just want to make sure I got that. Uh-huh. A till of the hon is a good stuff. Alrighty. I think I got what I need from you, bud. Perfect. Yeah, I think we'll go with that. Uh, he was reelected. Oh, my God. How can he not be with that kind of great quote? I mean, we need a guy who's going to make a till the hon look like a queer. That's what we need in the mayor's office. How much like Trump is this? It's, um, I'm afraid to say how much it is like him. Frank ran on the slogan, quote, he held the line on taxes. Then right after winning, he raised taxes. A full percentage point making Philadelphia the highest in the country for taxes. But that's another thing that happens. I mean,

that is what I like. If you live, you know, the longer you go through these election cycles, the more that is exactly what happens over and over again is every election, you elect somebody to fix everything. Nothing really fucking changes. And then the next and four years later, everyone's like, we need to fix this. And everyone's like, yeah, we need to fix this. And then you pick someone and then they don't fix it. And then again, people are like, we got to fix this. He didn't fix it. And they're like, yeah, this guy will fix it. Just like you keep hiring a dude to be a store manager for a store that's constantly on fire. It seemed like Frank cannot be stopped. He had a very rough charisma. He was a big barrel chested, very plain spoken. Basically,

he was a man's man. Quote, he had a swagger that was part wise guy part boxer and part general generalissimo. Whether he was a good cop was almost beside the point. He had an extraordinary presence as a policeman that made him the nearest thing to myth the city ever had. So he was like a good he was like basic man like neanderthal man. Yeah. And he was always a cop. There's a famous photo of him at a crime scene one night dressed in a tux with a night stick tucked into his cummerband. It might have come because he always wanted to be right in the middle of whatever was going on. So he would leave a black tie event to beat the fuck out of there was a murder or something that just happened. Christ. His heroes were Nixon, Frank Sinatra and J Edgar Hoover.

Well, I mean, quite a rush more to very three very honest gentlemen. Yes, three guys known for letting people compromise with them. At night, he held court in a South Philly restaurant called Palumbo's and he started building a stone family mansion in the very white neighborhood of Chestnut Hill. He didn't want to live in a diverse area. Is that weird? I'm a little surprised. And what was the name of the area? Chestnut Hill. Okay. Now, this was something no one a public servant on a public servant salary could afford. So the Daily News investigated and learned that Frank had accepted favors from contractors. Sorry, you accidentally said Frank, I don't know what name you meant to say. That doesn't sound like Frank doesn't sound like Frank. My Frankie.

Of course, no one did anything. He just got away with it. Of course. Why not? Rizzo was popular even with the reporters who were most skeptical about his behavior. There was something about him. And he went to extraordinary lengths to try to co-opt his adversaries, especially in the press core. Rizzo now focused on ensuring his place in history. He started a publicly funded anti defamation agency to combat pejorative jokes that people around the country told about Philadelphia. Uh, get the fuck out. Are you fucking shitting me? Because the truth is at the, like, I wish you, you were reading, but my face when you said that was like, well, how was he possibly anti? And it's because he doesn't want people to think the town he made shitty is shitty. Oh, fuck. That's

definition. That is not the racist against our town. The agency went after SOS scrubbing soap pads because the company was running a national ad that made fun of how dirty the city was. Man, you know, you're in a fucking weird spot when Brillo pads are your enemy. That's when you got to be like, are we out of our fucking tits? And guys, hold on, guys, before we go, before we go, I got an idea. Instead of going after the Brillo pads, yeah, we clean up our city a little bit. Uh, no, no, I don't think you're understanding. The problem is they're telling people it's dirty. So we're going to go fuck them up. It is dirt. It is. Somebody sounds like a Brillo Padman. Okay, okay, I get the fuck beat him beat him.

A boycott was started and the company pulled the ad. But you just, it, it, it's all the same. But he couldn't stop the flood of reporting about his horrific time in charge in a newspaper series that went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered the systematic brutality of the Philadelphia Police Department. The interrogations were known as the third degree. Cops were torching suspects and witnesses to get statements. To do this, they would beat and stab them while they're handcuffed to chairs. You're going to tell me that you saw that guy shoot that guy. Go ahead and stab him right there. I shot him. No, you didn't shoot him. You saw a guy

shoot him. Oh, wait, I'm gonna stab you again. I shot him. Okay, good. He shot him. Okay, perfect. I'm bleeding. That's all right. You'll be all right. This town's dirty. It's very dirty. You want a brillo pad? No. That's the right answer. As we covered an episode 24 of the dollop. We all remember 24 well. Friction increase between the police and the Black Liberation Group move. You remember a move? Barely. When they burned down the city. Oh, yeah. Right. That we don't get to that because that was a post-fragment. Right, right. They often demonstrated against racism and police brutality. When their house was condemned, they refused to leave. The police tried to enter the house on August, August 1978, and a officer was shot and killed. During the

confrontation, seven other cops, five firefighters, three bystanders and three move members were also hurt. Leading the, uh, leading the fennel, leading the, uh, the fennel raid officer. Oh, right. Fennel, of course. Right, of course. Because that was the main guy. Yeah, he was in charge of that. Perfect. But people started to sour on Frank. A recall attempt was begun mostly based on the fact that he had raised all the stuff we talked about had raised taxes. Oh, fuck. Oh, that's the funniest thing you ever said. 250,000 signatures were gathered by liberal groups. Frank's lawyer pals challenged the signatures and the recall process. Challenge the recall process. Yeah, you can't go after a guy. Why? Brillo pads written all over it. Classic Brillo pads. These

guys. Uh, the Supreme Court, uh, Philadelphia, uh, Supreme Court eventually heard the case and declared the recall attempt unconstitutional. What's great. This is what's great about this podcast. Is anytime there's like a little bit of hope where you hopefully this is the time you just have to prep yourself for the fact that the higher ups are going to be like, he's right. It was a three to two decision. The decision was written by Chief Justice Robert Nix. Nix had been elected in 1971 with the help of a guy named Frank Rizzo. Chocking. Even though he survived the recall, people were done with Frank Rizzo. Those against corruption began winning elections across the state. But Frank is like Michael Myers. He pressured the city council to put a referendum

on the ballot that would change city law to allow a mayor to run for a third consecutive term. Oh my God. Mayor Hitler, everyone. It led to the largest voter turnout in Philadelphia history and the referendum was crushed. Okay. There would be no third term for Mayor Frank Rizzo. I mean, you got to be so sick of a dude to be like, fine, I'll go. It wasn't over. In 1979, the Justice Department kicked off an investigation into pervasive police abuse in Philadelphia. Two weeks later, he was on Tom Snyder's late night talk show. Why not? Hit the press tour while you're hot, baby. Vowing that he was until he was out of office, he would continue to speak out in defense of law and order.

Right. Was he smiling and winking? When he was asked if he had talked about breaking the heads of criminals, he said, break their heads is right. They're trying to break yours. You break theirs first. You do the criminal barbarians. You're safer in the jungle. Animals don't attack you. That's not true at all. Animals do attack you. Yeah. Very, very true. I feel like that's a good point. But that's why it's good if you're a corrupt piece of shit to just go off into the sunset and quit pushing it. It's like the difference between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. It's like one of them is like painting dogs in Crawford and the other one's like, just like, dude, we fucking are sick of you go. Frank also said the Philadelphia Police Department

was strong enough to to quote invade Cuba and win. We're now equipped to win wars. See, now that I would actually be okay with. Then he added, that's not the way it should be. Oh, so he does sort of get reality a little. But I understand that a police department can't stage a coup. I do get that. I do get that we should invade Cuba. But Cuba, watch your fucking ass. All right. Philly might be coming. All right. So the investigation by the Justice Department concluded that between 1970 and 1978, Philadelphia cops shot and killed 162 people. Oh, my God. Now, he couldn't serve three consecutive terms as mayor. Yes. And I hope that's where that sentence ends.

But he could serve three terms. So he's out of office in 1980. No, he's he's out of office in 1980. And he really is Michael Myers. And he has. He has police office. He's no longer an official of the city of Philadelphia. But he has police officers guarding his house, which is strange. So a reporter goes up there and parks a van to see what'll happen. And of course, a bunch of cops come over and Frank comes over and start arguing. And then Frank rips out the cameras wires so it can't. So the next day, the reporter goes back. Oh, boy. Okay.

Get away from me. Get away from me or I'm going to throw you out in the middle of the street. Sir, I'm one more question. I'm telling you, get away from me. You were the symbol of law and order in Philadelphia, sir, for many years. People looked up to you and respected you. Look, creep, get out of here. How could you justify your actions at our cameras last Monday in front of your house? You're a creep. We're a member of the media. We'd like to have an answer to your question. Creep. Why did you attack our cameras? Get it all. Don't miss any of it. You're a creep. Get away from me. Would you answer the question?

You know, you hide behind that press card. I'm not hiding anything, sir. I just want to get some answers. I take what you do. There's a gang of yous here. There's enough of you here. I'll buy myself. I'll take yous physically. I'm not asking you to take me physically. Well, get away from me. Well, sir, I'm on the public street. I should be authorized to be here. I'll break it over here. I'll break it over your head. Get away from me, you crumb. That's a challenge, except I'll put my dog away, and I'll come back, and you got one, two, three, and I'll do it along with you, and that back of that fence. Just the three of us, four of us,

me and you. I'll show you what kind of a man you are. You're less than a man. Okay? You're a crumb creep. And I wouldn't take that off a nobody. There's three of you and I'm by myself. And when it's over, there'll be nothing to it. Win or lose, okay? But you don't have the courage. You're a real crumb bum. Put that on camera. You're a crumb bum, the three of yous, and I challenge you. You're a coward. You're a yellow sneak. And if you want to, now what I say, let's forget all the rules of this great country we live in. I will go back to that war with the three of yous. Just me. You're a crumb creep coward. You can't take, you don't, you won't stand up to me. I'm standing up. We're not here to fight. We're here to get some answers

to some questions. That's all. I want to fight you. Why is that? Because you're a crumb creep lush coward. You don't even know me, Mayor. You are a lush. I can tell by looking at you. I was a cop all my life and I know a lush one. I see one and you're a lush. You're going to have a hell of a story on that one. Say every word of it, crumb. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. He's guilty of terrific alliteration. Holy shit. I mean, that's Frank Rizzo. Holy shit. That is fucking amazing. Dude, he, that reporter is dynamite. Yeah, he's fantastic. I mean, because he knows he's like hanging there. He's walking away. People are listening. He's walking. But when he does that

last part, Rizzo's walking away and the moment's over and then he comes back for the last. He's like, he does the Colombo. Just one more thing. All the incriminating shit. Wow. You're a crumb creep crook cracker cake calling me Colombo. You're a lush. I can tell me looking at you. You're a lush. I'll take all three of you. I'll take all three behind that wall where we're not private citizens. I don't know if you know behind that wall is not a part of America behind that wall. That playground has seceded. We go there. It's lawless. I'll take the three of you back there. All three cakey, crummy and kooky. I'll go back there and I'll break all your fucking heads. You calling me corrupt and violent. I'll take you back there and beat the

fuck out of you. Show you who violence is. We were just we just want to fucking kill you and I'll eat your babies. Okay. I'll eat your babies and your wives. I'll eat all you. I'm a cannibalistic crumb creep cracking cake calling Colombo. By the way, for people listening, he's walking his dog. He's walking his dog. Fuck. I mean, the dog is probably looking at the reporter like please. Yeah, I'll put that. I'll put that up on Facebook and Twitter. Holy shit. So he ran again and so the next couple days later, all of the police were pulled out. He no longer had a police presence in front of his house. He ran again in 1983, but he lost a Wilson Good in the primary. So wait, so actually Good did overcome evil. Yeah, but then Good dropped the firebomb on the move building

and burned out a giant moving. He became so then so he lost to the Democratic Party. So then in 1987, he ran as a Republican. Finally. But this time he lost to Good again, but by a 49% to 51%. Jesus Christ. I mean, so after all that shit, he was still pretty close, almost winning pretty close. Done. Nope. He ran again in 1991. What the fuck 91. We're really getting close to our time. But he did. I don't know. It's gotta be old. Yeah. But he didn't make it. I mean, he never made it to the election. On July 16, 1991, he had a massive heart attack and died. He was 70. Frank Rizzo's funeral was the biggest ever held in Philadelphia. Tens of thousands of people were in the streets to see the funeral procession.

A 10 foot tall statue of Frank Rizzo paid for a bribe. Private contribution was erected in front of Philadelphia's municipal services building. Many people are horrified by it. It's still there. Yep. Once asked years ago, what he wanted on his gravestone, Frank joked, he's really dead. That's a really good joke is Frank Rizzo. Whoo. I'm beat. I'll take naps. That's the 70s. You know, the jerky boys. Yeah, they do Frank Rizzo character. I found that very, very, very fucking annoying while I was trying to research this story. Seriously, Johnny fucking bat shit crazy. My God. I was like, why the fuck you name this guy from Frank Rizzo? But he's from fucking New York. Why would you name a guy Frank? You fucking stupid,

illiterate cunts. Oh man, but you got to hear the Egyptian magician. Holy shit, dude. That is epic. What a fucking prick. I mean, honestly, you could do three hour a three hour dollop on Frank Rizzo. I mean, just the stuff I had to leave out. I mean, he's just that video is unbelievable. Yeah, it's he's just amazing. Amazing. But he tapped into that guttural man thing that he's just a fucking guy. He doesn't take any shit. He's like the fucking John Wayne of Philadelphia. He's just this fucking ape moron. And it just attracts so many people. And it's what Trump is now. It's this stupid simplicity. Well, and, you know, I think you're definitely right in the Trump comparison. But in general, politics is is, you know,

unfortunately, they've stumbled upon a magic formula, which is that the more you fear monger, the more that people will always play it safe when it comes to their livelihoods and their safety. And so when you tell people that that is in jeopardy, they are fucking putty. Yeah, the blacks and the Jews and the liberals are coming for you. And that was it. They just like, oh God. And it really is just it's the same. It's the same shit just a different box every time. Yeah, it's just like, you know, label it what you will. But it's always just they're coming. Totally, whoever they are. No, they're coming. They're coming. Anyway, I hope that dog's still alive. I hope so too. All right, you guys, we're signing cars.