Mastodawn

40 years ago today, the Philadelphia Police Department used a helicopter to firebomb the headquarters of MOVE, a radical collective that was being evicted for what amounted to building code violations. Eleven people died (including five children). The fire eventually spread and completely burned down two city blocks.

Then the remains of those killed, were, for unclear reasons, turned over to the U. Penn Museum, where they sat for decades. https://share.inquirer.com/m7vjmf

The long, tragic journey of the MOVE bombing’s youngest victims

Depositions in legal cases shed new light on the way Philly and Penn treated bones pulled from the rubble 40 years ago.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Matt Blaze May 13

MOVE was, without doubt, guilty of being annoying. They had occasional confrontations with police. There were unsanitary conditions. Their neighbors complained about them. But the response was a case study in wildly disproportionate overreaction that should never be forgotten as a cautionary tale of where militarization of local police leads.

Matt Blaze May 13

I think the MOVE bombing isn't as well remembered as it should be partly because it's so over-the-top crazy that people brush it off as something where "there must be more to it than that". But no. The police department literally used a helicopter to drop an incendiary bomb on a row house in order to evict the occupants, burning down two city blocks in the process. That's what happened.

DougMerritt (log😅 = 💧log😄)May 13

@mattblaze
IIRC the "more to it than that" was that, as often is the case, the police *suspected* them of more (terrorism or something), which they didn't actually have evidence of, but which they thought justified their actions.

Something like that. Sad.

Ben Aveling May 13

@dougmerritt @mattblaze being uppity while black?

DougMerritt (log😅 = 💧log😄)May 13

@BenAveling @mattblaze
That certainly seems to be at least part of it, and "being uppity while black" *is* pretty much a known death sentence.

Reading wikipedia to try to find "more to it than that" seemed like it was about events that might have all been ambiguous or arguable or unjust. I really wouldn't know.

Matt Blaze May 13

@dougmerritt There was a longstanding feud between them and the PPD, including several shooting incidents at a previous location. At the time of the firebombing, several of their members were in jail (which, ironically, probably saved their lives).

Ciggy Bringer of Smoke May 14

@mattblaze @dougmerritt

Its safer at the front! Holy shit, another example.

Come On Giant Asteroid!May 13

IIRC, the PFD was ... kept back? At least for a while. Completely ridiculous. 84? 85?

Also, MOVE is not an acronym ... just the group's name.

@VE2UWY @mattblaze Yes, the fire department was not allowed to intervene, and the Police set up snipers to kill anyone that tried to leave.

Colin Warren May 13

@mattblaze Having lived in the reach of Philadelphia TV stations at the time, I’m struck in retrospect at the absolutely deliberate nature of all the aspects of it as well—it was busloads and busloads of police assembled, it was hours and hours of standoff, a fire that the police let burn for more than an hour, nearly explicit threats to the fire department and mayor(!)…

Paul Coen May 13

@mattblaze I was in high school (Rhode Island) at the time, and was a regular newspaper reader (Evening Bulletin, Boston Globe), watched the news, etc. That story made a HUGE impression on me in terms of how I viewed law enforcement and structural racism. I was pretty liberal, and that gave me a hard shove further left.

Holy shit: "Police used more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition" in the 90 minute firefight before they dropped two bombs on the roof.

"No one from the city government was criminally charged in the attack."

I wonder why these police atrocities keep occurring. Could it be because there's no accountability? Nah, must be DEI.

(As a Canadian, I was not familiar with this incident)

cwicseolfor May 13

@cazabon @mattblaze (Honestly, I was that nerdy straight-A kid in school in the US - and moreover grew up adjacent to a lot of people bleating about "governmental tyranny" at Ruby Ridge and in Waco - and I didn't learn a word of this until long after I had a uni degree, and from reading discussions on social media. This is *deliberately buried* history.)

@cwicseolfor Yeah, me too.

teledyn 𓂀 May 13

They dropped C4 given to them by the FBI. That's another "more to it than that" detail often slipped by.

@teledyn @mattblaze it's just like all of those times when the "I know a guy who knows how to make bombs" guy is a fed.

Except, this time, the bomb he procured wasn't fake.

Cory Panshin May 13

@mattblaze I remember it vividly. My husband and I watched the whole thing obsessively on local TV while our six year old and three year old bopped around being bored.

@mattblaze
I remember when that happened and it happened exactly like that.

The unchecked power of the police was greater than the law.

Michael Porter May 13

@mattblaze I remember watching this on the news, gobsmacked.

matthew green May 14

@mattblaze this happened when i was barely a teen in australia and i'd never heard about it until today. WTAF.

@mrgtwentythree

You don't remember this song?

https://youtu.be/gzrCjeo-bO4?t=36

Quite why a band from Perth in Australia wrote ao song about this I have no clue. But that song is why I know about Philadelphia cops firebombing people's houses.

Eurogliders - City Of Soul

YouTube

matthew green May 14

@bigiain @mattblaze i missed it. i can only think of their heaven must be there song as something i remember. did follow grace knight's career for a while though, saw her in melbourne 90s i think. (i could be misremembering.)

Martin Vermeer FCD May 13

@mattblaze Read about this some time ago.

https://fediscience.org/@martinvermeer/112435137770687471

Martin Vermeer FCD (@martinvermeer@fediscience.org)

@MisuseCase@twit.social @anildash@me.dm So much ugliness there... it seems that the bones of two of the kids killed were kept in a cardboard box at the University of Pennsylvania, and are now unfindable. It's not even certain that the bones were of those kids ☹️ https://billypenn.com/2021/04/21/move-bombing-penn-museum-bones-remains-princeton-africa/

FediScience.org

Quinn Norton May 14

@mattblaze their biggest crime was the usual: being black.

Sociological Focus May 13

@mattblaze https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/stories/move-osage-avenue

West Philadelphia Collaborative History - MOVE on Osage Avenue

Aldo Bruno May 13

David Lynch speaks the truth about Philadelphia, especially in those days.

Matt Blaze May 13

@CiaoBruno I lived a couple blocks from his old house, across the street from the old city morgue. The neighborhood had changed by the time I got there, but you could still see what he saw.

NosirrahSec 🏴‍☠️May 13

@mattblaze @CiaoBruno that's so cool.

Philly is perhaps my favorite city that I've visited so far.

I love Boston and I live here, but I don't count it in my favorites because it's just permanently first place by default.

Philly feels like Boston, but different. I can't explain why I love it.

@mattblaze I don't know if this will be available in all regions but the BBC recently broadcast a programme on this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c2bp

Archive on 4 - Philadelphia's Forgotten Bomb - BBC Sounds

Why did the Philadelphia police drop a bomb on an occupied house in 1985?

BBC

Matt Blaze May 13

@aroundthehills Looks like it's available in the US, at least. (Though I had to swear up and down several times that I'm over 16 first).

Ian Jackson May 13

@mattblaze From Wikipedia:

Philadelphia police ... then dropped two [bombs] from a ... helicopter onto the roof of the occupied house. For 90 minutes, the Philadelphia Police Department allowed the resulting fire to burn out of control, destroying 61 previously evacuated neighboring homes over two city blocks and leaving 250 people homeless.[3] Six adults and five children were killed in the attack,

WTF TIL. Thanks.

@mattblaze
"40 years ago today, the Philadelphia Police Department used a helicopter to firebomb the headquarters of MOVE"
Why is this not in U.S. history schoolbooks? It's something students can learn from so in the future when they make decisions they will not make the same mistakes.

Mx. Luna Corbden May 14

@mattblaze @passenger jfc I was ten!!

Steve 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️May 14

@mattblaze great podcast about this done by the CBC called The Africas vs. America. All members of MOVE took on the surname Africa. The pod was season 20 of Uncover. I had never heard of this before I came across the podcast. I'm over 50 and have lived in California all my life.

Fat_Farang May 14

@mattblaze You left out the part where there were crowds of people cheering on the police. The police also blocked firefighters access to the scene.

Matt Blaze May 14

@Fat_Farang That’s not correct. The fire department was present, but complied with orders from the police to let the fire burn for over an hour.

Stoneface Vimes May 17

@mattblaze oh my god!