30 years ago....Let the Fire Burn:

[JEB]

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2015/05/13/let-fire-burn-morally-reprehensible-attack-move

Let the Fire Burn: The "Morally Reprehensible" Attack on MOVE
by
Abby Zimet, staff writer

In what many deem "the pinnacle of police brutality" - and the only time the U.S. has bombed its own citizens - Philadelphia police 30 years ago today fired 10,000 rounds and many tear gas cannisters at a house holding the Black Power group MOVE, dropped an explosive on them from a helicopter, then infamously decided to "let the fire burn." The ensuing conflagration killed 11 people, including 5 children, and destroyed over 60 houses. There were only two survivors: A woman who used the name Ramona Africa, and a 13-year-old boy Birdie Africa. A subsequent investigation and report called the police response "a criminally evil act." Marking what is often viewed as a case study in policy failures by police, prosecutors and judges whose bloody legacy lives on today, no law enforcement was ever held accountable.

<snip>

The MOVE debacle continues to haunt many in the city. Jason Osder, a white filmmaker who made the 2013 documentary Let the Fire Burn using almost entirely archival footage, sees it as "a parable of how the unthinkable comes to happen...Everyone who was an adult in the city failed that day." Then as now, he says, it's about race and class “every single day of the week." Ramona Africa, now the only living MOVE survivor from that day, likewise links it to Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and all the rest. “These people that take an oath swearing to protect, to save lives – (the cops) don’t defend us. They kill us....It’s happening today because it wasn’t stopped in ’85. The only justice that can be done is people seeing this system for what it is.” And hopefully - see Baltimore - acting to change it.

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http://www.commondreams.org/further/2015/05/13/let-fire-burn-morally-reprehensible-attack-move

Well worth a thoughtful read and photos to view, even a trailer for the documentary. Still important stuff.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. I try to keep up with such anniversaries...

I missed this. Thank you!

[JEB]

2. I remember those times.

My son was five that year and hearing about police killing children was so horrifying. What kind of people can such things? Have we learned nothing?

[Cooley Hurd]

3. It, as much as it is about race, is also about economic inequality.

...and it hasn't changed for anyone.

[JEB]

4. I'm an old white dude in small town Oregon

and it just makes me sick and ashamed. We could be so much better.

[Wilms]

5. Full Documentary

[JEB]

6. Thanks for that.

[JEB]

7. Fucking Ed Rendell.

[Wilms]

8. Yep. n/t