The Frank Rizzo statue could soon be returned to the group that donated it to the city, lawyer says

The divisive 10-foot, 2,000-pound bronze likeness of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank L. Rizzo could soon be reunited with the group that donated the statue to the city, according to the group’s lawyer.

It’s been nearly four years since the Rizzo statue, which stood for decades outside the city’s Municipal Services Building, has seen the light of day, after former Mayor Jim Kenney ordered it be taken down at the height of the racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. The monument has been in city storage ever since.

But that may soon change, said George Bochetto, the attorney for the Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee, which donated the statue to the city in 1998.

Bochetto said Tuesday that the city has agreed to return the statue and pay for the damage it sustained when it was removed, as first reported by Axios. The city and committee still have to undergo a bureaucratic process and file a joint motion with the Art Commission to transfer possession of the monument, he said, but Rizzo’s supporters are already looking ahead.

“We are putting together a committee of prominent Philadelphians to pick a new location for the display of the Rizzo statue and hopefully that will be done within the next several months,” Bochetto said.

A city spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday, saying “the matter remains in litigation.”

» READ MORE: How Mayor Jim Kenney abruptly ended years of delays to remove the Frank Rizzo statue

The monument committee, led by activist and former Rizzo secretary Jody Della Barba, sued the city after the statue’s removal. The group maintained that the city violated the terms under which the statue was donated. If city officials ever wanted to remove the statue, they were first supposed to offer its return to the Rizzo Monument Committee, the group said.

The Kenney administration fought the return of the statue to the committee “tooth and nail,” said Bochetto, adding that the group has found Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration easier to work with. Still, Parker was supportive of the removal when she was a Council member.

Many Philadelphians see the Rizzo statue as a monument to racism and police brutality toward communities of color during his time as police commissioner. Among the incidents cited was his department’s swift response in 1967 as thousands of students protested in front of the former Board of Education building to demand African American history classes be added to the curriculum. Dozens were arrested and 22 people were seriously injured.

Calls for the statue’s removal from such a central location predated its life in storage by several years and various rounds of vandalism. A Ku Klux Klan hood was even placed on the statue’s head in an act of protest in 2016. The statue was spray-painted during protests in May 2020, with some protesters attempting to set it on fire.

» READ MORE: The Rizzo statue disappeared and Philadelphia is still unpacking its legacy

Bochetto said he is well aware of why people wanted the statue removed, though he said that as someone who knew him personally, he disagrees with some of the characterizations of Rizzo.

“Yes, he was tough on crime,” said Bochetto. “Yes, he was a brute in some respects. But it wasn’t racist. It was law and order, it was crime, and I think he got a bad rap, frankly.”

And he was the pride of the city’s blue-collar Italian Americans, said Bochetto, with a compelling story of a man who worked his way up to police commissioner and later became mayor.

» READ MORE: From 2017: Who was Frank Rizzo? Nearly 30 years after his death, Philadelphians still don’t agree.

Just where the monument could go remains an open question. A top choice would be some location in South Philadelphia, though the committee is casting a wide net, Bochetto said.

“We’re not looking to create bad feelings or stick it to anybody,” he said. “We’re looking to display perhaps one of the more historic figures in Philadelphia history.”