Joe Mastronardo, the grandson of former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo, said Friday he is "offended" but not surprised with the news that his grandfather's statue would be moved from its place on a Center City plaza.

"It’s pretty sad, and I don’t feel sadness very often," Mastronardo told PhillyVoice. "It’s not a good statement about where we are as a society and where we’re going as a country when they cater to, pander to, and allow these crazy people to run roughshod with their revisionist history."

The controversial bronze statue of Rizzo stands at Thomas Paine Plaza in front of the Municipal Services Building. When calls to remove it intensified after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, city officials asked residents to submit their ideas for the future of the statue.

"I’m sick and tired of defending a guy, my grandfather, who gave his life to this city. If anybody deserves a statue, it’s him." – Joe Mastronardo, Frank Rizzo's grandson



On Friday the city announced that the statue would be moved, but that several sites were under consideration and study, and that a decision on the new location would not be made for at least six months.

Here is the full statement provided to PhillyVoice by Mastronardo, who lives in Montgomery County:

