Roddy Piper Quotes
When I would go into Madison Square Garden, I wasn't the most popular guy. Madison Square Garden, there's 16,000 Puerto Ricans with knives and great radios and stuff.
The New York City comptroller was outraged by the new president of the Board of Alderman, former congressman Fiorello La Guardia, who later became mayor of New York. The two men clashed constantly, especially at meetings of the New York City Board of Estimate, where the comptroller made an unusual request of the chairman:
La Guardia was a very short man and he had gone up to the much larger “poll watcher” and ripped his official button off his coat. The Tammany Hall political machine would appoint thugs as poll watchers to intimidate the voters. If the poll watcher was an "official" voters thought that they might have access to the ballot information and know whether or not they voted for the machine candidates. Their presense was often sufficient intimidation to assure party line voting by most people.
In April of 1689, Protestant William of Orange landed in England against Catholic King James I, in a Catholic-Protestant civil conflict which not only affected England but its colonies as well. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York City were confused and wary as to taking immediate sides, but there was a strong anti-Catholic movement in New York City. This group, functioning as “The General Convention for the Province of New-York,” elected Leysler, its leader—later appointing him Lieutenant Governor of New York. Leysler’s forces seized the government and imprisoned the King James Appointed Officials who would not turn against James. Leysler actually governed New York for almost two years. The old guard of New York, after William had been crowned King, attempted to regain the status quo ante. Leysler and his extremist followers saw them as traitors and Papal supporters although they themselves were English Protestants. But their appointment, loyalty and wavering regarding James I made them traitors in the view of Leysler. When initial troops tried to regain power for the original governor and council Leysler, he simply dismissed them as Papists. Finally, in March of 1691 Governor Slaughter, arrived with more troops, and after a significant Battle for New York, captured Leysler and his major followers where were executed shortly thereafter. This incident, sometimes referred to as “Leysler's Rebellion,” represents these American “firsts.” First successful revolution in America; First military coup; First military dictator. First successful counter-revolution. There were some contemporary critics who thought Leysler as interested in custom duties as Papists.
Roderick George Toombs was a Canadian professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor, better known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
