Richard J. Daley Quotes

Richard J. Daley, (May 15, 1902 - December 20, 1976) mayor of Chicago, Illinois from 1955 to 1976.

• "The policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder."^[1]

Attributed

• "If a father can't do a favor for son, what is the world coming to?"
• "Together we must rise to ever higher and higher platitudes."
• "Even the Lord had skeptical members of His Party."
• "Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch, you lousy mother-fucker, go home." said to US Senator Abraham Ribicoff after he blasted Daley and his administration at the 1968 Democratic Convention for their handling of convention riots. Those in the vicinity of Daley claim he said "faker", responding to Ribicoff's betrayal for praising Daley the day before. (See account in the book American Pharaoh)
• "Good government is good politics."
• "I'm not the last of the old bosses. I'm the first of the new leaders."
• "I have conferred with the superintendent of police this morning and I gave him instructions that an order be issued by him immediately and under his signature to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a molotov cocktail in his hand"
• "There wasn't any shoot to kill order. That was a fabrication"
• "They have vilified me, they have crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me."
• "The Democratic Party is the party that opened its arms. We opened them to every nationality, every creed. We opened them to the immigrants. The Democratic Party is the party of the people."
• "After all, I am a liberal myself"

References