Word: alioto
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There was no point in calling the police. Some 90% of the city's 1,935 policemen were out on strike for a 13% pay increase. It was the first such walkout in the city's 125-year history. To combat it, Mayor Joseph Alioto took to TV to declare that the walkout "simply cannot be condoned and will not be condoned. I will not back away from this." Buoyed up by a superior court judge's ruling that declared the strike illegal and ordered the policemen back to work, Alioto also tried to preserve calm among...
Matters soon looked more serious than the mayor admitted. A pipe bomb filled with black powder exploded on the front porch of Alioto's home in the exclusive Presidio Heights district. Alioto's wife Angelina was at home but was not hurt. A note left on the porch read: "Don't threaten us." The mayor announced that he felt that striking policemen were not implicated in the incident, and he resisted pleas that he call in the National Guard...
With protective services virtually halted, the board of supervisors passed a resolution on Wednesday requesting Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to order in 200 highway patrolmen. It required Alioto's signature, however, and he declined to sign the order, fearing that it would wreck the negotiations he was trying to maintain between the board and the strikers. "I'm so angry I can't speak," snapped Board President Dianne Feinstein, a candidate for Alioto's job when the lame-duck mayor's second four-year term expires in January. Replied Alioto: "That...
While most San Franciscans remained calm and all 37 actual fires were extinguished, the uneasiness in the streets became obvious. Before dawn on Thursday, Alioto decided to shift ground and grant the strikers their full pay increase-with a compromise gesture delaying its enactment until Oct. 15. He did not inform the board of supervisors of his action until later that morning, Alioto told a news conference, because "I didn't want to disturb their beauty sleep," and he quietly hummed Mr. Sandman to the gathering .of reporters...
First Dictator. Furious at the mayor's unilateral action, the board voted unanimously to reject his proposal, declaring that they would never "negotiate with outlaws." Supervisor John Barbagelata, another mayoral candidate, denounced Alioto as "the first dictator in the United States." Unruffled, Alioto, under the broad city charter provision that grants the mayor power "to do whatever he may deem necessary" to preserve the public welfare, declared a public emergency and ordered the increase carried out. Police and firemen went back to work almost immediately. Beamed the mayor: "The strike is over...