Richard J. Daley Quotes

Richard Joseph Daley was an American politician who served as the 38th Mayor of Chicago for a total of 21 years beginning on April 20, 1955, until his death on December 20, 1976. Daley was the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee for 23 years, holding both positions until his death in office in 1976. Daley was Chicago's third consecutive mayor from the working-class, heavily Irish American Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, where he lived his entire life. Daley is remembered for doing much to avoid the declines that some other "rust belt" cities—like Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit—experienced during the same period. He had a strong base of support in Chicago's Irish Catholic community, and he was treated by national politicians such as Lyndon B. Johnson as a pre-eminent Irish American, with special connections to the Kennedy family. Daley played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and of Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Daley is the father of Richard M. Daley, also a former mayor of Chicago, William M. Daley, a former United States Secretary of Commerce, and John P. Daley, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. While many members of Daley's administration were charged with corruption and convicted, Daley himself was never charged with corruption.

✵ 15. May 1902 – 20. December 1976
Richard J. Daley photo
Richard J. Daley: 8   quotes 0   likes

Famous Richard J. Daley Quotes

“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.”

[David Farber, Chicago '68, University of Chicago Press, 1994, ISBN 0226238016, pg 145(b)</small>, pg 249<small>(a)]
Stated one week following the April 1968 Chicago riots to the people of Chicago because of his dissatisfaction with the minimum use of force employed by Police Superintendent James B. Conlisk in dealing with rioters.

“Even the Lord had skeptical members of his party. One betrayed him, one denied him and one doubted him.”

The Last Good Campaign, 2008-10-12, Thurston Clarke, 2008, June, Vanity Fair Online http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/06/rfk_excerpt200806?currentPage=4,
Said when asked if he thought Robert F. Kennedy could win the Democratic nomination for President in 1968, comparing Kennedy to Judas Iscariot.

“The confrontation was not created by the police; the confrontation was created by the people who charged the police. Gentlemen, let's get the thing straight, once and for all. The policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”

[A Handbook for Psychological Fitness-for-Duty Evaluations in Law Enforcement, Cary D., Rostow, Robert D. Davis, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0789023962, 18]
Said during the civil disorders associated with the Democratic National Convention in 1968.

“I'm not the last of the old bosses. I'm the first of the new leaders.”

[Cohen, Adam, Elizabeth Taylor, American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation, Back Bay Books, 2001, ISBN 0-3168-3489-0]

“If a man can't put his arms around his sons and help them, then what's the world coming to?”

The Man Who Made Chicago Work, 2008-10-12, Staff Reporter, 1977, January, Time Magazine Online http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947807-2,00.html,
Response to criticism for steering millions of dollars in city insurance to an agency where his son worked.

“They have vilified me, they have crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me.”

[William, Schmidt, Willaim E. Schmidt, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DD1038F932A15751C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all#, Chicago Journal; Syntax Is a Loser in Mayoral Race, The New York Times, February 2, 1989, 2008-10-12]
A statement he once made in response to criticisms, alluding that he treated criticism on par with vilification and crucifixion.

“Good government is good politics and politics is good government.”

[The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition, Paul Michael Green, Melvin G. Holli, Southern Illinois University Press, 1995, 144, ISBN 0809319616]
An ofttimes repeated maxim of Daley's to describe his view on the inseparability of politics and government.

“Fuck you, you Jew son of a bitch, you lousy mother-fucker, go home.”

[David Farber, Chicago '68, University of Chicago Press, 1994, ISBN 0226238016, pg 145(b)</small>, pg 249<small>(a)]
Said to Senator Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut when the Senator challenged Daley's use of force during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

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