From: levene@aplpy.jhuapl.edu (Robert A. Levene)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: MOVE (was Re: Eating Dogs)
Date: 31 Aug 1992 16:18:35 -0500
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

A few UL's surround the MOVE incident, so stay tuned.

In article <1992Aug31.153420.15895@hubcap.clemson.edu> 'tis written:

> I remember when I lived in Philadelphia back in High School.  There was
> this cult group called MOVE.  They had something like 30 people living
> in a small row home. ...

(FYI, 'MOVE' is not an acronym, although the spelling is MOVE)

>  The had baracaded the house like a fort, installed
> a machine gun nest on the roof, set up loud speakers and shouted
> obscenities all night long at the neoghbors.

...who were loudly demanding action from the police.

> fort well enough to withstand this.  They finally ahd a helicopter fly
> over the house and drop a bomb on it.

The "Philadelphia Air Force" bombing raid was caught on video, BTW.  The
bomb was C-4, although they initially said it was Tovex.

>  It blew up and started a fire.
> The firemen refuse to fight the fire until they were sure everyone
> inside was killed by it for fear of their own lives.

Why this fear?

This was the *second* major confrontation with MOVE.
Years before, during a similar confrontation, the MOVE people shot and
killed a police officer.  This is a BAD way to make friends with
police and firefighters.


> tunnles could stretch on for four city blocks so they let the fire bunr
> everything over four city blocks around the house to assure that anyone
> hiding down in the tunnels would be killed and not come up and kill the
> firemen.

Urban Legend:

 The mayor was watching the news of the fire,
 and mistook the 'snow' on his TV picture for water, and thought they
 were putting out the fire, so he didn't order them to put it out until
 blocks had burned to the ground.  Some columnist suggested an
 advertisement: "If I had a Sony TV, I'd still be mayor."  He was
 re-elected anyway.


>  Then the put the fire out and rebuilt the hundreds of houses
> they burned down and reimbursed all the fmailies for theit losses.
> This was a poor neighborhood

Incidentally, this was comedian David Brenner's boyhood neighborhood.


Urban Legend:  the MOVE incident was used as anti-U.S. propaganda
fodder, and portrayed as "American Police Firebomb House of
Poor Dissidents" rather than "Police assault cop-killer cult compound."


>  but the families were all given seriously
> expensinve cars and fancy homes and all sorts of luxuries to replace and
> compensate their losses.

I know their homes were rebuilt (the rebuilding was itself a scandal)
but I never heard anything about cars and luxuries.  The new rowhouses
had 1-car garages; maybe that's how the UL started.


> Essentially, the city moved MOVE.

UL: The MOVE people, calling themselves a "back-to-nature" group,
were supposedly offered a farm outside Philly, but refused
the offer, preferring to make trouble in the city, starve
their children, harrass the neighbors, etc.

Strange but true (???):

The songs "burning down the house" and another which
went "...the roof is on fire, we don't need no water, let
the m* f* burn" came out just before this incident.
(May 13, 1985 ??)

Rob

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban