Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
In the case of Frank Rizzo, out of sight does not always mean out of mind.<\/p>\n
The former mayor and police commissioner died 35 years ago. A 10-foot bronze statue reminded Philadelphians of his presence for decades, until civil rights protests<\/a> in 2020 culminated in the monument\u2019s removal from public display. <\/p>\n It might have lost its prime spot outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall. But, six years later, the statue remains a subject of interest, leaving reader JJ Cutuli to ask Curious Philly<\/a>, The Inquirer\u2019s forum for questions about the city: \u201cWhere is the Frank Rizzo statue, right now?\u201d<\/p>\n The short answer? Now that repairs have been made, the search for a new home is on. Here\u2019s how we got here.<\/p>\n The last thing Cutuli heard on the Rizzo statue saga<\/a> was that it was set to be returned to the Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee, after a settlement was reached with the Philadelphia Art Commission last summer. <\/p>\n \u201cI am very much against the statue, against the man, against what it all represents,\u201d Cutuli said. \u201cBut sweeping it under the rug or sending it to a scrap yard might take away the opportunity to deal with the issues that it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n Rizzo has long been a controversial figure. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was accused from different fronts<\/a> in the city of having allowed police to function with little oversight, putting people of color in a vulnerable spot. <\/p>\n Between 1970 and 1978, police shot civilians at a rate of one per week, according to an Inquirer investigation<\/a>. That led critics to condemn Rizzo as a racist, and protesters even put a Ku Klux Klan hood on the statue\u2019s head in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statue is a deplorable monument to racism, bigotry, and police brutality for members of the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and many others. The treatment of these communities under Mr. Rizzo\u2019s leadership was among the worst periods in Philadelphia\u2019s history,\u201d then-Mayor Jim Kenney<\/a> said in a statement in 2020, when the city removed the statue overnight.<\/p>\n For supporters, however, the South Philly native was a beacon of Italian American pride whose tough approach on crime could have been misunderstood. <\/p>\n \u201cHe was a brute in some respects. But it wasn\u2019t racist,\u201d George Bochetto, an attorney for the Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee, told The Inquirer in 2016. \u201cIt was law and order, it was crime, and I think he got a bad rap, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n The agreement left the committee with an $80,000 payment from the city<\/a> for damages caused to the statue during its removal. <\/p>\n \u201cThey put it on the back of a flatbed truck and a piece of the base broke off so they had to replace that base,\u201d Bochetto said. \u201cThere were also a lot of scratches and gouges on the body of the statue, which had to be repaired too.\u201d <\/p>\n The bronze Rizzo has been at a foundry undergoing \u201cexpensive five-figure repairs,\u201d Bochetto said. <\/p>\n Restorations are now done, according to the lawyer. The next frontier is finding a new home for the Rizzo statue. <\/p>\n