Word: rizzo
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PHILADELPHIA. "I am the toughest cop in America," former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo often boasted, a thick finger stabbing the air. Now, as the city's Democratic candidate for mayor, Rizzo puts out much the same message. Billboards and taxis all over the city carry his beefy face and the slogan RIZZO MEANS BUSINESS...
Cisco Kid. One of three sons of a Philadelphia policeman, Rizzo more than earned his tough-cop reputation. While still a patrolman, he was nicknamed "the Cisco Kid" for breaking up a gang fight singlehanded. As commissioner, he prevented almost certain race riots by keeping large groups of police at the ready, sometimes loaded onto buses, and rushing them into potential trouble spots at the first sign of a disturbance...
...Philadelphia, with a one-third black population and the highest incidence of black gang violence in the country, Rizzo's tactics have inspired either admiration or dismay. From the beginning Rizzo was so confident of victory that he refused to debate his opponents or make any appeal to the black vote. Instead he limited his campaign appearances-usually no more than one a day -to friendly white neighborhoods and concentrated on polishing his gruff supercop image. "I was there in every crisis when Philadelphia needed me," he told one audience. He did not have to spell out the fact...
Like Wallace. Rizzo's victory and Shapp's support of Green vastly complicate the Pennsylvania political landscape and the selection of the state's 182 delegates to the 1972 Democratic Convention. Shapp is thought to lean toward a Kennedy nomination, while Rizzo presumably favors Washington's more conservative Senator Henry Jackson. Rizzo will probably defeat his G.O.P. opponent, Thacher Longstreth, a former city councilman, so there is bound to be a nasty intraparty fight...
Shapp, of course, would like to be able to deliver the entire state delegation, third largest in the country. But Rizzo is not likely to forget Shapp's answer when asked if he could support the former cop if he won the primary. "In a way," said Shapp, "it would be like me supporting George Wallace for President." Shapp also hopes that the responsibilities of office will moderate Rizzo: "You can't solve the transportation problem by beating on the side of a bus with nightsticks...