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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

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Riordan Keeps Talking: The Former Mayor on Policing & the NFL Coming to L.A.

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Richard Riordan

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Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan turned heads last week with his scathing review of the city's financial status and continued his opinions over the weekend with LA Times columnist Patt Morrison. Of note were his thoughts on police and bringing football to the region. "We can try to make the Police Department and the Fire Department run more efficiently. For example, eliminate the 12-hour day [and the resulting three-day workweek]. Go back to the eight-hour day. You'd add the equivalent of 400 officers. The same way with the Fire Department," he said of the budget crisis and keeping the city safe.

And on football: "The owners of the teams are the most arrogant, egotistical people in the world, and they do things for their own, [as they did] when they gave the expansion team to Houston rather than L.A. Now they realize they made mistakes. They need L.A.; we're the second-biggest television market in the country. So it'll happen."

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