{"id":1208,"date":"2020-06-29T00:53:38","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T00:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2020-06-29T00:53:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T00:53:38","slug":"the-day-police-bombed-a-city-street-can-scars-of-1985-move-atrocity-be-healed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/?p=1208","title":{"rendered":"The day police bombed a city street: can scars of 1985 Move atrocity be healed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ed Pilkington<\/a><\/p>\n

Eleven people, including five children, died and a Philadelphia neighborhood burned down in the airstrike against a black liberation group. Now an effort at reconciliation is under way<\/i>\"move_bombing.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Frank Powell, a Philadelphia<\/a> police officer who in 1985 was chief of the city\u2019s bomb disposal squad, remembers vividly the moment he was given his instructions. \u201cWow,\u201d he recalls thinking. \u201cYou want me to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

On 13 May 1985 Powell was handed an army-style green satchel containing a bomb made of C-4 plastic explosives of the sort widely deployed in Vietnam. He boarded a state police helicopter, and took up his position balanced precariously on the skids of the aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t remember being scared,\u201d he told the Guardian, \u201cthough I must have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 5.27pm as the helicopter rose into a crystal-clear blue sky he carried out his orders. Flying over a largely African American residential neighborhood of west Philadelphia, he lined up his sights, lit the 45-second fuse with a military igniter and followed his orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached out and I dropped it. Perfect. It was going right where it was supposed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

His target was the roof of 6221 Osage Avenue, a row house which at the time had 13 American citizens inside. They were all members of Move, a group which combined the black liberation struggle with back-to-nature environmentalism.<\/p>\n

Each Move member took the last name Africa to signal their commitment to race equality as well as to each other as a family. For years they had been in a running battle with the Philadelphia authorities culminating that May in arrest warrants, for a range of offenses including \u201cterroristic threats\u201d, \u201criot\u201d and \u201cdisorderly conduct\u201d, being served and a standoff ensuing that ended with the dropping of Powell\u2019s bomb on to their house.<\/p>\n

It led to one of the great, largely forgotten, outrages of modern America.<\/p>\n

After the bomb struck, a fire took hold and began to spread. The police commissioner, Gregore Sambor, critically and fatally decided \u201cto let the fire burn<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

By the following morning 61 homes had been razed to ashes, leaving 250 Philadelphians destitute and homeless.<\/p>\n

Only two of the 13 residents of the Move house got out alive.<\/p>\n

The remaining 11, including five children aged seven to 13, were similarly reduced to ashes.<\/p>\n

As the 35th anniversary of the bombing approaches, efforts are under way to increase public awareness of the atrocity. It was one of the rare times in US history that American civilians were attacked on domestic soil by aerial bombing, another being the dropping of dynamite on to African American homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma<\/a>, in the bloody race riots of 1921.<\/p>\n

Pressure is also mounting ahead of the anniversary for an apology to be issued by Philadelphia. Wilson Goode, the first black mayor of the city, who approved the 1985 attack though he claims to have been ignorant of key aspects of it, has said sorry on several occasions.<\/p>\n

But there has never been a formal apology from the city. No one involved in conceiving and carrying out the assault has ever been prosecuted.<\/p>\n

In an opinion article in the Guardian<\/a>, Goode argues that it is now time for Philadelphia to follow his example and issue an official apology. Repeating his \u201cdeep and sincere\u201d regrets, he calls on other former and current officials to join him in saying sorry for \u201cindefensible\u201d acts that led to a \u201chorrific outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 35 years it would be helpful for the healing of all involved, especially the victims of this terrible event, if there was a formal apology by the city of Philadelphia. Many in the city still feel the pain of that day \u2013 I know I will always feel the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goode\u2019s Guardian article is part of a wider two-year effort to bring opposing parties in the Osage Avenue bombing together in a process of \u201creconciliation\u201d. The discussions, reported here for the first time, began in September 2018 and are ongoing.<\/p>\n

The negotiations involve both Move members and city dignitaries. On the city side, they include Goode and Ed Rendell, who was Philadelphia\u2019s district attorney in 1985 and who served the arrest warrants that led to the bombing (he later went on to become governor of Pennsylvania).<\/p>\n

Rendell did not respond to Guardian requests for comment. But he has approved a draft resolution of a city apology \u201cfor the decisions leading to the devastation that occurred on May 13th, 1985\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the Move side, discussions have been led by Mike Africa Jr. He holds a special place in the Move family because he was born in a prison cell<\/a> \u2013 his mother Debbie gave birth to him soon after she was arrested along with his father Mike Africa Sr in a previous police raid<\/a> on a Move house in 1978.<\/p>\n

His parents both served<\/a> 40 years in prison for the shooting death of a police officer, James Ramp, during the raid, although they along with all of their fellow incarcerated Move members always protested their innocence.<\/p>\n

Mike Africa Jr said that his many face-to-face meetings with Goode during the secret talks were \u201cthe hardest thing I\u2019ve ever had to do\u201d. His great uncle John Africa, the founder of Move, and his cousin Frank Africa both died in the 1985 fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilson Goode for me has always been the boogeyman,\u201d Mike Africa Jr said. \u201cAfter some meetings with him I came out literally vomiting. He\u2019s the face of the bomb that killed my family, the man who said after the bomb was dropped that if he had to, he would do it again. So to sit in a room with him, even decades later, was gut-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Africa Jr said he disliked the phrase \u201creconciliation\u201d, preferring \u201crestorative justice\u201d. The initial demand from Move was to have all the remaining seven members of the Move 9 who had been incarcerated after the 1978 siege released \u2013 an ambition fulfilled<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

Now Mike Africa wants to see the release of an associate of Move, the former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal<\/a> who has been incarcerated since 1981 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer. Africa also wants to see some form of reprimand for those who ordered and participated in the 1985 bombing.<\/p>\n

Other Move members are skeptical about the value of the talks. One of the doubters is Ramona Africa, who was the only adult to escape the Move house in May 1985 after Powell dropped the bomb.<\/p>\n

She told the Guardian how she and 12 others cowered in the basement of Osage Avenue as the house came under blistering attack. Water cannons were unleashed, teargas pumped in, the front of the house blown off with explosives. Then more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were fired from police submachine guns.<\/p>\n

And that was before the bomb was even dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were deluged with water and gas,\u201d Ramona Africa told the Guardian. \u201cWhen that didn\u2019t work to bring us out of the house, they dropped the bomb. The whole house shook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramona was able to flee through a basement exit along with just one child, Birdie Africa. The other 11 adults and children tried to follow them out but were forced back under a hail of police gunfire, she said, though that account has been disputed over the years by Philadelphia police.<\/p>\n

Ramona was badly burned in the fire. For her pains, she was arrested, charged with riot and conspiracy, and spent the next seven years behind bars \u2013 the only person ever to be convicted of crimes arising from the attack.<\/p>\n

Given her devastating experiences, she is dubious about the prospects of reconciliation. \u201cWe don\u2019t want no apology,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can\u2019t make up for what they did, they can\u2019t bring our people back who they murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janine Africa, one of the Move 9 imprisoned after the 1978 siege, lost her 12-year-old son Little Phil in the bombing. She described the boy to the Guardian as \u201ca very outgoing kid, very adventurous, a little comic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Janine bitterly remembers how she learned that her child had diedwhile she was being held in solitary confinement (she was released<\/a> almost exactly a year ago after 41 years in prison).<\/p>\n

She recalled: \u201cThe guard opened my cell door and said: \u2018Your son is dead,\u2019 then shut the door. That was it. No explanation. Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janine Africa is also unconvinced by the push for an apology. \u201cIt\u2019s really insulting to say you\u2019re sorry now, after all these years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite such reservations, Ulysses Slaughter, a reconciliation strategist who has mediated the talks, is certain the process is needed to heal the wounds that are still open for so many Philadelphians. \u201cThe events of 1985 continue to silently traumatize people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to ask themselves, what have we become as human beings when we allow our neighborhoods to become war zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the more than 500 police officers who took part on the siege on 13 May 1985, as well as firefighters, have also been involved in the reconciliation talks.<\/p>\n

Jim Berghaier was on police duty in Osage Avenue that day and helped Birdie Africa escape the conflagration. He told the Guardian that he is haunted by the image of the boy walking through a wall of fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive kids died, and the neighbors lost everything. We failed, and it bothers me. Nobody ever seemed to care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berghaier said he only found out later that children had been present in the house. \u201cEven to this day I carry a lot of guilt because of those five kids. I was only a wall away from them. People say to me, \u2018But you didn\u2019t know,\u2019 but you can\u2019t help thinking about it. They died a horrible death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linn Washington, who reported the events for the Philadelphia Daily News, believes it is long overdue for a formal recognition by the city of the grievous wrong done that day. \u201cYou can\u2019t effectively move on until you find that kind of reconciliation. They killed five kids. The police commissioner called them \u2018combatants\u2019 \u2013 they were kids!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Gauthier, the city council member who represents the area of Osage Avenue today, is one of several current elected officials backing an apology. She told the Guardian: \u201cTo this day this represents one of the most heinous acts done by a city government against its own people \u2013 not just in Philadelphia, but in the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, the only person who the Guardian talked to who said they have not had to wrestle with trauma over the past 35 years is the man who dropped the bomb.<\/p>\n

Frank Powell is convinced the fire that killed 11 people and devastated the area was not caused by the explosives in his satchel, but by the Move residents who, in his narrative, set fire to their own home in a deluded desire for suicidal martyrdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did that day has never bothered me,\u201d he said. \u201cI went up in that helicopter with the truest intentions of getting those people out unharmed. It didn\u2019t happen that way, but it wasn\u2019t our fault. I can live with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ed Pilkington Eleven people, including five children, died and a Philadelphia neighborhood burned down in the airstrike against a black liberation group. Now an effort at reconciliation is under way Frank Powell, a Philadelphia police officer who in 1985 was chief of the city\u2019s bomb disposal squad, remembers vividly the moment he was given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1209,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbmv.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}