There was a time when Osage Avenue was far more than a street in West Philadelphia.
It represented a glaring example of how a group of radicals, an incompetent police force and a lack of communication between the two could leave a neighborhood in flames, with 11 people dead.
Osage Avenue was home to MOVE, a cult that preached anti-government revolution and turned their house into an armed fortress with a wooden bunker perched on the roof.
Police had been keeping an eye on the group, but when its members began using a bullhorn to yell profane anti-government rants at all times of the night the confrontation was set.
What should have happened next was that police and other city officials would address MOVE with reasonable force.
But on the morning of May 13, 1985, after police surrounded the MOVE home and exchanged gunfire with members inside, they decided to take a page from a popular song from the Gap Band and literally drop a bomb on the house.
Not a tear gas weapon or a stun device. We're talking about a real bomb.
That is why in looking back at the MOVE incident 25 years later, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Philadelphia police officials, who should have faced departmental and civil charges for misconduct.
(It's amazing how often police resorted to violence against black targets, especially in the fight against black militant groups in the 1960s. Do you think the Philadelphia police would have been so quick to drop a bomb in a white neighborhood?)
No doubt that MOVE instigated this mess. The group had a long history of starting violent fights with the police, including a 1978 shootout at their previous headquarters in the Cobbs Creek section of Philly.
But police are the ones that turned a siege into a killing field.
As soon as MOVE members, all of whom used the last name of Africa, started turning their Osage Avenue address into a fort, police should have gone in and thrown their butts in jail.
Dropping a bomb on the house is what a 12-year-old boy might think of to solve the problem. It's amazing that that was the best solution veteran big-city police officials could devise.
After many hours, 61 homes were destroyed. Today, more than a dozen homes are still boarded up -- even after more than $43 million was spent to revitalize the neighborhood. Shameful.
The MOVE house was rebuilt after the bombing. The homes in that neighborhood, though, many of which are wasting away, continue to serve as a reminder of the type of violence that occurred against black groups and organizations throughout the history of this country.
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If we don't think this still can't happen, we obviously don't see what the US is doing to other countries, and see that they can and will implore those same tactics on ppl who do not bow to their system. If MOVE members were wrong for defending their home, then we might as well burn the constitution, its a peice of toilet paper right now anyway.
Althought I was only 7 and lived in Philly. I remember this when it was on the news. My mom tells me that the MOVE people were so dirty that that house was rat infested and had feces everywhere! They said that the bomb killed the rats and roaches and stench that u could smell from blocks away because of that house. The neighbors complained about the MOVE people for years! They say that the bomb was accidental. Now being an adult, I don't believe that, but I do believe that the people of MOVE had fore warnings. It's a shame when people loose their lives over stupid things like this.
Ahh, M.O.V.E. ..IF you go a little further back you will find that they were driven out of Chester,PA-(a town in suburban Delaware County). This report fails to mention that MOVE had stored multiple barrels of gasoline in 55 gallon drums on the roof of their ROW HOME. The police dropped a percussion bomb-the spark set off the gasoline.Maybe the cops should have looked better first, maybe people should not be storing hundreds of gallons of gas on the roof of their ROW HOME. They should also not have loudspeakers spouting streams of profanity-laced rantings being broadcast 24/7 to the neighborhood. Would you have liked to been their neighbor? Probably not. I think even Mr Rogers would have found this unacceptable. The Philly cops should have gotten a heads up or some 411 from the Chester cops and never let them infest that neighborhood.Could have stopped it at the first sign of rats,roaches, loudspeaker-powered obscenities ,utilities being cut off with small children in the house,reeking rotting garbage and feces building up behind the 10 foot fence. If you feel the urge to scream: WHAT ABOUT THEIR FREEDOM ??Okay - first you must have had to live next to them or within SHOUTING distance, then you can still feel sorry for them if you want.
I find it funny that the report fails to mention the bombs intention was only to blow a home in the roof so they could insert tear gas, that the explosion was so large and destructive because MOVE had stored all the gasoline on the roof as a previous poster mentioned. Mainly I cannot stand they do not mention the police were only there to serve some warrants and it became a siege after MOVE opened fire and did shoot a police officer in the back, being saved by his body armor.
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Comments: (5)
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By: rootsyd on 5/13/2010 1:26PM
If we don't think this still can't happen, we obviously don't see what the US is doing to other countries, and see that they can and will implore those same tactics on ppl who do not bow to their system. If MOVE members were wrong for defending their home, then we might as well burn the constitution, its a peice of toilet paper right now anyway.
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By: E on 5/13/2010 1:57PM
Althought I was only 7 and lived in Philly. I remember this when it was on the news. My mom tells me that the MOVE people were so dirty that that house was rat infested and had feces everywhere! They said that the bomb killed the rats and roaches and stench that u could smell from blocks away because of that house. The neighbors complained about the MOVE people for years! They say that the bomb was accidental. Now being an adult, I don't believe that, but I do believe that the people of MOVE had fore warnings. It's a shame when people loose their lives over stupid things like this.
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By: terry turner on 5/13/2010 7:37PM
It's a shame I am hearing about this attack for the first time in my life at the age of 45.
Maybe my head was buried in the sand somewhere. lol
And its sad that this only the third comment posted, I know its like opening up a can of worms, but its reality.
Just use it to be informed, and not do any harm.
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By: KitKat on 10/12/2010 11:00AM
Ahh, M.O.V.E. ..IF you go a little further back you will find that they were driven out of Chester,PA-(a town in suburban Delaware County).
This report fails to mention that MOVE had stored multiple barrels of gasoline in 55 gallon drums on the roof of their ROW HOME. The police dropped a percussion bomb-the spark set off the gasoline.Maybe the cops should have looked better first, maybe people should not be storing hundreds of gallons of gas on the roof of their ROW HOME. They should also not have loudspeakers spouting streams of profanity-laced rantings being broadcast 24/7 to the neighborhood. Would you have liked to been their neighbor? Probably not.
I think even Mr Rogers would have found this unacceptable.
The Philly cops should have gotten a heads up or some 411 from the Chester cops and never let them infest that neighborhood.Could have stopped it at the first sign of rats,roaches, loudspeaker-powered obscenities ,utilities being cut off with small children in the house,reeking rotting garbage and feces building up behind the 10 foot fence.
If you feel the urge to scream: WHAT ABOUT THEIR FREEDOM ??Okay - first you must have had to live next to them or within SHOUTING distance, then you can still feel sorry for them if you want.
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By: Rob on 2/04/2011 9:34AM
I find it funny that the report fails to mention the bombs intention was only to blow a home in the roof so they could insert tear gas, that the explosion was so large and destructive because MOVE had stored all the gasoline on the roof as a previous poster mentioned. Mainly I cannot stand they do not mention the police were only there to serve some warrants and it became a siege after MOVE opened fire and did shoot a police officer in the back, being saved by his body armor.
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