While sitting in a restaurant in Philadelphia’s
Chinatown last week during my first visit here in more than a
decade, I watched TV news reports of normally placid Anaheim,
California engulfed in riots that exploded after that city’s police
officers shot to death two young men over the weekend. It was
shocking. The photos of riot-clad police tussling with and firing
bean-bag rifles at protesters brought back bad memories of growing
up in the Philly area in the 1960s and 1970s.
These days, Philadelphia is a surprisingly calm place, but back then, when tough-guy Mayor (and previously police commissioner) Frank Rizzo ruled the roost, there were frequent confrontations. The worst incident actually came after Rizzo left office when city cops in 1985 dropped a bomb on a row-house occupied by a black liberation group and killed 11 people, including five children. Those were dark times, but it seems as Philly has learned some lessons that have evaded California police forces.
While Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait is, thankfully, no Frank Rizzo, he tried his hand at tough-guy rhetoric at a press conference: “Vandalism, arson and other forms of violent protest will simply not be tolerated in our city. We don’t expect last night’s situation to be repeated but if it should be, the police response will be the same: swift and appropriate.”
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/27/anaheim-riots-spotlight-need-for-broad-p
These days, Philadelphia is a surprisingly calm place, but back then, when tough-guy Mayor (and previously police commissioner) Frank Rizzo ruled the roost, there were frequent confrontations. The worst incident actually came after Rizzo left office when city cops in 1985 dropped a bomb on a row-house occupied by a black liberation group and killed 11 people, including five children. Those were dark times, but it seems as Philly has learned some lessons that have evaded California police forces.
While Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait is, thankfully, no Frank Rizzo, he tried his hand at tough-guy rhetoric at a press conference: “Vandalism, arson and other forms of violent protest will simply not be tolerated in our city. We don’t expect last night’s situation to be repeated but if it should be, the police response will be the same: swift and appropriate.”
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/27/anaheim-riots-spotlight-need-for-broad-p
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