Just consciously realized that today is the 13th. It's the 38th anniversary of the MOVE bombing.
Let's see what the media has written to commemorate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
#MOVEbombing #BlackHistory #FuckThePolice #PoliceDontKeepUsSafe
Yesterday in The Guardian:
❝
As a child, Mike Africa was a regular visitor to this row house on the west side of Philadelphia, spending time with his great-aunt and uncle, cousins and friends – all members of Philadelphia’s Black liberation group known as Move. He remembers gathering with the other kids on the roof of 6221 Osage Avenue, eating fruit as the sun went down.
It was on that same roof, 38 years ago on Saturday, that one of the worst incidents in America’s long history of racial atrocities was perpetrated. At 5.27pm on 13 May 1985, a state helicopter commissioned by Philadelphia police flew low over the property and dropped a bomb made of C-4 plastic explosives directly on to it.
The device ignited a fire that turned into an inferno that was then notoriously allowed to burn by Philadelphia authorities intent on driving the Black radical organization out of the city. Eleven people trapped inside the Move house at 6221 Osage Avenue died in the conflagration.
❞
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/12/philadelphia-move-bombing-mike-africa
Pittsburgh Gazette
❝ Operas of old focused on high-drama
stories of murder and betrayal and
passion and romance.
Operas today are a more mixed bag
but their dramatic tendencies tend to
run in a political and ideological
direction. That's certainly the case
with Pittsburgh Opera's season
closer, "We Shall Not Be Moved,"
which opens on Saturday at
the August Wilson African American
Cultural Center and runs through May
21.
"We Shall Not Be Moved" originally
premiered in 2017 in Philadelphia
and is set in North Philadelphia in the
abandoned headquarters of the
MOVE organization.
❞
✂️ Snip ✂️
❝Our story picks up with five children
from Philly who've decided not to go
to school anymore because they're
not getting a good education," said
Daniel Bernard Roumain. "And they
start being taught by ghosts in this old
building.❞
I think about the neighbours who complained that the Africas made too much noise and had a smelly compost heap.
When the 🐖🐖🐖 were done, SIXTY-ONE (61!) homes had been destroyed. Undoubtedly, every single complainant's house had burnt.
Seems an awfully high price to learn the lesson: #PoliceDontKeepUsSafe
We probably don't need a reminder that colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism kill, but the MOVE bombing is tangible evidence of the lengths to which the system and its henchmen will go to protect themselves.
Eleven people, 5 of them children, were murdered on this date.
Say their names:
Raymond Africa (50)
John Africa (44)
Conrad Africa (36)
Rhonda Africa (30)
Frank Africa (26)
Theresa Africa (26)
Katricia Africa (14)
Zanetta Africa (13)
Phil Africa (12)
Delisha Africa (12)
Tomaso Africa (9)
#PoliceDontKeepUsSafe #DefundDisarmDismantle #MOVEbombing #BlackHistory
Wow. I actually remember that. Gawd, I'm old.
@bitcodavid
Me, too, my friend.
Me, too.
I don't know. 😞
I remember hearing about it here in Canada, but no idea how far coverage made it.
In 1985, police dropped a bomb in a Philadelphia neighborhood. Their target? A family of Black radicals known as ‘MOVE,’ who found themselves ensnared in a city — and nation’s — domestic war on Black Liberation. Over seven episodes, host Matthew Amha investigates the events that culminated in the MOVE bombing, and the long afterlife of a forgotten American tragedy. The Africas VS. America is nominated for a Webby! Vote for the series here [https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2024/podcasts/limited-series-specials/documentary]. All episodes are available ad-free on the CBC True Crime Premium channel [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/cbc-true-crime/id6442568309?ign-itscg=80085&ign-itsct=pod_channel_cbctruecrime].
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