“Frank Rizzo Down” Protest Planned for Center City

Frank Rizzo statue | Photo by Jared Brey

A protest calling for the removal of the city’s Frank Rizzo statue is planned for Monday afternoon.

The “Frank Rizzo Down” rally will kick off at 4 p.m. outside the Municipal Services building, where the statue of the former mayor and police commissioner was both egged and tagged with “Black Power” last week amidst calls for its removal. 

A pro-statue protest scheduled for the same time Monday has been postponed. Organizers of that rally say Mayor Jim Kenney agreed to meet with them to discuss the statue’s future.

The monument has come under fire in the wake of the Charlottesville violence, which has prompted a backlash against controversial statues (mainly Confederate monuments) like the sculpture that white supremacists and neo-Nazis sought to protect when they marched on the Virginia town earlier this month.

Those calling for the Rizzo statue’s removal cite the former mayor’s contentious relationship with the city’s African American and gay communities, among other things.

As of Monday morning, about 301 people said they will attend the event on Facebook, and more than 1,200 said they’re interested.

Rally organizers say several speakers will be present at the event. Expect to see a heavy police presence as well – much like there was during the “Philly Is Charlottesville” protest last week.

This past weekend, the Frank Rizzo mural in the Italian Market was also vandalized (yet again).

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