From: acbonin@unix.amherst.edu (ADAM CRAIG BONIN)
Subject: Re: AFU on the MOVE (was Re: Eating Dogs)
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 20:23:00 GMT

Sean Smith (smith+@cs.cmu.edu) wrote:
: 
: Ah, the City of Brotherly Love!
: 
: In article <1992Aug31.153420.15895@hubcap.clemson.edu> jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght) writes:
: 
: 	(tales of the MOVE confrontation in Philadelphia)
: 
: In article <85vpblmh@csv.warwick.ac.uk> csuah@warwick.ac.uk (~WISP at CU~) wr: In article <BtuwAp.CzE@news.larc.nasa.gov> ray@nmsb.larc.nasa.gov writes:
: 
: 	Nope.  For the most part the story as written above is true.  
: 
: 
: Now, I write:
: 
: Yup, the story is essentially true---except Joseph failed to note that this
: was the SECOND major MOVE confrontation in the city.
: 
: Quick summary of facts:
: 
: 	MOVE is (was?) a rather strange group---sort of a militant back-to-
: 	nature-urban-revolution group.  Its members all adopted the surname
: 	``Africa'' and lived in squalor and filth, while accumulating 
: 	weapons and annoying the neighbors.  (The name ``MOVE'' itself is
: 	apparently an acronym that doesn't stand for anything.)
: 
: 	In the late 1970s, there was a major standoff between MOVE and
: 	police/firemen sent to evict them.  (This was not too far from
: 	the University of Pennsylvania campus.)   During the scuffle,
: 	MOVE managed to shoot and kill a fireman, and Philly police appeared
: 	on national news kicking and beating handcuffed black suspects.
: 	(But the eviction was successful and the house demolished.)
: 
: 	In the early eighties (possible 1984?), the whole thing 
: 	happened again, in a different neighborhood.  This time, MOVE had 
: 	constructed a serious concrete bunker on their roof.  For various
: 	reasons, the police dropped a bomb on it.  The ensuing explosion
: 	caused a major fire, which the firemen (citing the fatality in the
: 	previous incident) refused to fight.  The entire neighborhood 
: 	(evacuated, except for the MOVE household) burned to the ground.
: 	Almost all the residents of the MOVE house---including about
: 	a dozen children---burned to death.
: 
First of all, it was May 13, 1985.  The reason a bomb was dropped was that the
MOVE members would not obey an eviction notice and city police feared the MOVE
members were armed and dangerous (they were).  The bomb was supposed to be just
a "percussion device" to shake the building and force them out.  Because of 
gasoline the MOVE members spread over the roofs of the neighborhood rowhomes,
a fire ensued.  The reason the fire was not put out was not as above mentioned,
but because they thought they could "smoke" the members out and then put it out
safely.  The results: 11 dead, 61 houses destroyed.


: There's a lot of UL material here...
: 
: 	* Tales of MOVE's unsanitary habits (e.g., dog-eating, conditions
: 	discovered in the house in the first incident, etc.)

Not UL--true.

: 
: 	* Tales of MOVE's militant ambitions (I've heard people claim that
: 	the reason the bomb blast was so devasting was that MOVE had been
: 	stockpiling gasoline/TNT/stuff-like-that in the bunker)

Again true.

: 
: 	* Tales of the late Mayor Frank Rizzo, in power during the first 
: 	incident.  Rizzo appointed his brothers as various city commissioners 
: 	and openly sanctioned the excessive use of force by his police force, 
: 	nicknamed ``Rizzo's Raiders.'' (Allegedly Rizzo wore a tuxedo, with 
: 	nightstick tucked in the cummerbund, to some fancy-dress activity.)

1. Frank's brother was named fire commissioner, that's the only one.
2. When Frank was police commissioner and mayor, police brutality was rampant.
3. The tuxedo-nightstick story is true, and I've seen the picture in 
   Philadelphia magazine (maybe 1987).

: 	* Tales of the strange turn of events that led to Rizzo changing
: 	parties to run against Wilson Goode (the city's first black mayor,
: 	in charge during the second incident).  I've heard of some national
: 	TV news program reporting on ``Goode and Rizzo's Greatest Hits,''
: 	featuring footage of things like the burning city and Rizzo's Raiders
: 	in action.
: 
: Someone who still lives in the Philadelphia area could probably elaborate
: greatly...
: 

I tried.
: 
: --Sean ``from Bucks County, actually'' Smith
: 
: *****************************************************************************

-Adam Bonin '94
 Amherst College

(a Philly boy always)
: