From: smith+@cs.cmu.edu (Sean Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: AFU on the MOVE (was Re: Eating Dogs)
Keywords: MOVE, Rizzo's Raiders
Date: 31 Aug 92 18:00:02 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.urban
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon


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~) writes:	

	You *are* taking the p*ss, aren't you? (Please say yes...)


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.

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.)

	* 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)

	* 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.)

	* 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...


--Sean ``from Bucks County, actually'' Smith

******************************************************************************
                         sean.smith@cs.cmu.edu
                     carnegie mellon computer science

          posting from PITTSBURGH, the center of the AFUniverse!
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