The bombing of MOVE

[TBF]

TBF note: Anniversary article from last year -

Today marks the ... anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the helicopter bombing of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE. The fire from the attack killed six adults and five children and destroyed sixty-five homes.

MOVE is a Philadelphia-based black liberation group. Founded in 1972 by a Korean War veteran named John Africa, its members hold anarchist views and also take strong stances on animal rights, the exploitative nature of American class society, and the oppression of minorities within the country and across the world. Members lived communally, sharing resources and living space.

MOVE Bombing at 30: "Barbaric" 1985 Philadelphia Police Attack Killed 11 & Burned a Neighborhood
May 13, 2015

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Today marks the 30th anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the helicopter bombing of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE. The fire from the attack incinerated six adults and five children, and destroyed 65 homes. Despite two grand jury investigations and a commission finding that top officials were grossly negligent, no one from city government was criminally charged. Here is how the bombing was initially reported in Philadelphia on WCAU [TV].

WCAU ANCHOR: I’ve just been advised that we have new videotape of the episode that apparently ended—we think ended—the MOVE situation tonight: the dropping of an incendiary device. And let’s take a careful look at this. 5:27 p.m., state police helicopter drops it. There is the explosion. As you can see, a very dramatic explosion that occurs 30 seconds and really rips into the MOVE compound. There you see the bunker, which soon will go up in flames. And that was the explosion close-up. Now, if there’s anybody there standing there, it’s obvious they couldn’t survive that explosion.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was WCAU TV, actually. We saw some video there. MOVE was a Philadelphia-based radical movement dedicated to black liberation and a back-to-nature lifestyle. It was founded by John Africa, and all its members took on the surname Africa. In 2010, Ramona Africa, the sole adult survivor of the attack, told Democracy Now! what happened as the bomb was dropped on her house ...

More here: http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/13/move_bombing_at_30_barbaric_1985

Another article here: http://blackthen.com/the-move-bombing-a-philadelphia-based-black-liberation-group/

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Also the North Tulsa Race Riots, 1920.

Airplanes bombed African-American citizens from the air in 1920 in North Tulsa, which was the most prosperous African-American business district in the country. I believe the planes were from the National Guard.

Tulsa has done a good job of not talking about that horrific incident. There are two books written about it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I remember hearing about this on teh news

but not seeing the extent of the damage, the cameras were taking close up pics and reporting a "fire" as a result of attempted arrests.

I also remembering the burning down of the Black Panthers house in LA during police action, and later, Waco massive fire.

Then... December 8, 1984, there was a massive FBI/local police shootout when the Feds tried to capture Robert Jay Mathews,
leader of The Order, an American white supremacist militant group. He burned to death during an intense gunfight with approximately seventy-five federal law enforcement agents who surrounded his house on Whidbey Island, near Freeland, Washington.

Here's the thing....that was a block from where I lived, in Greenbank, Whidbey Island.( I moved down South exactly 2 years later)
I happened to be coming up the road from the grocery store, hit a roadblock, car was searched, then I was told to go home and lock my door, some guy was loose and wanted by the FBI.
But...they already knew he was in the cabin, and were not letting anyone onto the road. No witnesses, people living on the road were removed by the police.
( There were not many people, it was very rural)
And there were 2 fire trucks at the road entrance, hours before the shooting started.

i could hear the noise clearly that afternoon.
They burned the cabin down, the guy died of smoke, not a bullet would on him.

[TBF]

3. ^ They do things like that routinely

We saw it first hand by reading between the lines when Hurricane Ike came through Galveston. The Bolivar peninsula (largely inhabited by working class folks serving the island) was hit hard. Reporters denied access to cover the carnage. Rick Perry, Chief Idiot, first blamed local authorities and then federal authorities. Lied about fatalities.