I had no idea that police authorities were permitted to use explosives against civilian targets.
It was a very serious situation. MOVE was essentially a suicide cult, with aspects that resembled the Jim Jones cult in Guyana. They had military-style weapons, had built a fortified bunker inside their rowhouse, had threatened to burn everything down if anyone tried to evict them.
The rowhouse was in the middle of the block. The only lines of approach were from the front, from the alley behind, or from the roof. There was no access and no visibility into the MOVE unit from the sides.
They dropped a satchel charge on the roof from a police helicopter. They were planning to make entry through the resulting hole in the roof. They didn't realize how much gasoline the MOVE people had stored in the attic crawlspace.
The MOVE people were really, really crazy. As crazy as any hard-core militant organization in the country.
I felt bad for the residents, and I felt bad for Mayor Goode too. He gave blanket authority to the police department to handle the matter, and it escalated uncontrollably.
To my knowledge this is the only time it was done.
Did not work out well.