Speaker 1: Massacre Monday City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, year nineteen hundred and eighty five.
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: You didn't No, I didn't know. Maybe no, I didn't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe you didn't I did No, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Now this was crazy to me. In nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: a lot of us were alive. You did you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, live in life. Also in nineteen eighty five
Speaker 1: there were folks dying by the City of Philadelphia while
Speaker 1: living in Philadelphia. I first have to introduce you to
Speaker 1: the Move organization move.
Speaker 3: Move is not an acronym.
Speaker 1: John Africa founded it, and he said he wanted the
Speaker 1: name of the organization to be exactly what they intended
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 3: Move. Everything that's alive moves. I respect it.
Speaker 1: Now, everybody that was part of the Move organization that
Speaker 1: was founded in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 3: Two all warlocked.
Speaker 1: So this group moved into some row homes in the
Speaker 1: Cobbs Creek neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now, in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: they did have a standoff with the police Department of Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: which resulted in the police officer being killed. They deemed
Speaker 1: about ten people responsible for that and gave them all
Speaker 1: between thirty and one hundred years. So from nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: eight to nineteen eighty five there were still some things
Speaker 1: going on, but Move the group had actually moved to
Speaker 1: the Cobbs Creek neighborhood. Now, if you're like me and
Speaker 1: not very familiar with Cobbs Creek, that area's in West Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: Now be clear.
Speaker 1: The neighbors had to complain to the city for years
Speaker 1: about trash around the building, confrontations with the neighbors, bullhorn
Speaker 1: announcements of political messages by the MOVE members. So the
Speaker 1: police got arrest warrants and by nineteen eighty five they
Speaker 1: was charging four of the MOVE occupants with crimes, noise violations,
Speaker 1: contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, terroristic threats. Now,
Speaker 1: the police evacuated the residents of the neighborhood before they
Speaker 1: mobbed on the row of homes occupied by the MOVE members.
Speaker 1: They told those residents you can come back home in
Speaker 1: twenty four hours Monday May thirteenth, nineteen eighty five, five
Speaker 1: hundred police officers. City Manager Leo Brooks is out there
Speaker 1: and their attempting to clear the building and remove the
Speaker 1: MOVE members and execute these arrest warrants. They cut off
Speaker 1: the water, they've cut off the electricity. This is five AM,
Speaker 1: and they tell the MOVE members, attention.
Speaker 2: MOVE members, this is America. You have to abide by
Speaker 2: the laws of the United States. You have fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: to come out.
Speaker 1: And when they didn't, they decided to forcibly remove those
Speaker 1: people in there, seven adults, six children.
Speaker 3: They throw tear gas.
Speaker 1: The police use over ten thousand rounds of am By
Speaker 1: two PM.
Speaker 3: The order was given bomb the compound.
Speaker 1: It was a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter and they dropped
Speaker 1: two one and a half pound bombs of FBI supplied
Speaker 1: C four on the roof of that house. The bombs
Speaker 1: exploded after forty five seconds. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Police Department
Speaker 1: dropped two bombs on the residents in its own city
Speaker 1: where they knew seven adults and six children were They
Speaker 1: killed eleven people in that house, six adults, five children.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and fifty people were homeless. At sixty one
Speaker 1: of the neighboring houses were destroyed.
Speaker 3: Because of the.
Speaker 1: Fire, they weren't able to come home. Twenty four hours later, Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: the city that bombed itself and I didn't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe you didn't either, No,