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To: Tailgunner Joe

I seem to recall a Philly mayor who ordered bombs dropped on his own citizens. Four kids burnt to death in the target house and a multi block confligration ensued.

As I recall the mayor was black and people that he ordered massacred were black. There was no racial animosity involved.

Now this current mayor may say that he would never order such a thing, but now there’s a precedent should he ever decide to.

A low level politician who has the power to order bombing attacks on a citizenry but then chastises these same citizens for wanting to exercise their God given right to defend themselves, is the epitome of an out of control hypocrisy.

The City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, people in their right minds, massacred children long before a madman with a rifle in Connecticut did.


38 posted on 01/17/2013 11:22:50 PM PST by Stormdog (A rifle transforms one from subject to Citizen)
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To: Stormdog

1985 bombing

In 1981, MOVE relocated to a row house at 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia. On May 13, 1985, after months of complaints by neighbors that MOVE members were broadcasting political messages by bullhorn at all hours and also about the health hazards created from piles of compost, as well as indictments of various MOVE members for crimes including parole violation, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terrorist threats[8] The police department attempted to clear the building and arrest the indicted MOVE members, which led to an armed standoff with police.[9] The police lobbed tear gas canisters at the building and the fire department battered on the roof of the house with two water cannons. MOVE members fired at the police, and the police returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.[10] The house was heavily fortified with old telephone poles lining the interior walls and a bunker was built on the roof. A police helicopter then dropped a four-pound bomb made of C-4 plastic explosive and Tovex, a dynamite substitute, onto the roof of the house to clear the bunker so that police would not be injured.

The resulting explosion caused incendiary materials listed in the police indictment, and stored by MOVE in the house, to catch fire, therefore causing the house itself to catch on fire. The resulting fire ignited a massive blaze which eventually destroyed 65 houses nearby.[2][11][12] Eleven people, including John Africa, five other adults and five children, died in the resulting fire.[13] The firefighters were stopped from putting out the fire based on allegations that firefighters were being shot at, a claim that was contested by the lone adult survivor Ramona Africa, who says that the firefighters had earlier battered the house with two deluge pumps when there was no fire.[11] Ramona Africa and one child, Birdie Africa, were the only two survivors. Police shot at those trying to escape the house[14] and acknowledge firing over 10,000 rounds.[15]
Aftermath

Mayor W. Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission called the PSIC or MOVE commission. It issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that “Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable.”[16] No one from the city government was charged criminally.


39 posted on 01/17/2013 11:31:51 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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