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Philadelphia's Osage Avenue police bombing, 30 years on: 'This story is a parable'
The Guardian ^ | 5/13/2015 | Alan Yuhas

Posted on 05/13/2015 7:02:49 AM PDT by Borges

On 13 May 1985, Philadelphia police moved in to arrest four members of a radical black liberation group called Move – but a bungled raid left 11 people dead. Alan Yuhas revisits the only aerial bombing carried out by police on US soil.

Sodden from the spray of fire hoses, terrified by the thousands of bullets fired above and the teargas floating into the cellar below, 13-year-old Michael Ward was hiding under a blanket when a police helicopter dropped a bomb on the roof of his west Philadelphia home.

The raid killed six adults and five children, destroyed more than 60 homes and left more than 250 people homeless. It stands as the only aerial bombing carried out by police on US soil.

The 30-year anniversary of the bombing of Osage Avenue will be commemorated without Ward, who was one of only two survivors of the disastrous assault. Instead professor Cornell West, author Alice Walker and others will give speeches and protesters will march down the crumbling, mostly abandoned block where the bombing took place, drawing ties between police brutality and institutional racism then and now.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Government
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I never heard of this incident.
1 posted on 05/13/2015 7:02:49 AM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

It’s The Guardian.

The UK will be seing much worse in the near future.

Thanks in a large part to the Guardian.


2 posted on 05/13/2015 7:05:25 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Borges

And they were bombed by a black mayor...


3 posted on 05/13/2015 7:09:21 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: Borges

Prior to the bombing: “F the police. We are strong and we will overthrow the white racists!”

After the bombing: “Waaaaaaaa! They beat us up and shot us!”

MOVE was a group of bullies that got popped hard.


4 posted on 05/13/2015 7:09:25 AM PDT by Bogey78O (We had a good run. Coulda been great still.)
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To: Borges
It was back in the days of faxes.

/johnny

5 posted on 05/13/2015 7:11:54 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: Borges

Black radical group called MOVE had barricaded itself in a Philly row house and had some sort of standoff going with police. After days of negotiation they could not get them out. They Mayor OK’s the cops to come over with a helicopter and drop a small bomb on the roof of the row house. This touched off a fire which destroyed an entire city block.


6 posted on 05/13/2015 7:12:44 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Bogey78O

7 posted on 05/13/2015 7:13:15 AM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Look it up. It’s real, and I remember it quite well.

MOVE was truly a bunch of whack-jobs.


8 posted on 05/13/2015 7:38:36 AM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: 2banana
And they were bombed by a black mayor...

And they were bombed by a black DEMOCRAT mayor...

9 posted on 05/13/2015 7:41:03 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
The roof had a bunch of gasoline cans on it which were clearly visible from aerial surveillance. These of course ignited violently when they dropped the "entry device" a.k.a. bomb. I remember the police chief arguing later that gas cans don't always contain gas, he has several that contain water. So naturally, drop a bomb on gas cans and hope for the best.

The mayor who ordered the whole raid was black though, so it doesn't count as a "black lives matter" moment.

10 posted on 05/13/2015 7:50:23 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

The roof had a fortified bunker on in. Police were taking all kinds of fire. MOVE had basically set up a little North Korea on one block of Philly.
Now you see people here defend them. This wasn’t Waco or Ruby Ridge. Both of those separated from society, and were no menace at all to their neighbors.

MOVE wasn’t.
One satchel charge on the roof and now its aerial bombing. Love the leftist drama queens. As for the row burning down, that’s what happens when so many bullets are flying that firemen cant safely get close. They aren’t expected to man hoses under fire.

The MOVE story is basically “One day we were sitting here writing black poetry, when for reasons we never fully understood we were the target of air raids. We wanted to walk out and surrender and see what the matter was, but the police wouldn’t stop shooting at us. We still don’t understand”.

Retarded.


11 posted on 05/13/2015 7:54:39 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: bigdaddy45
MOVE was truly a bunch of whack-jobs.

My personal suspicion at the time, was that their objective was laid out in their name: make the neighborhood unlivable, lower real estate values, make people move away, then have associates buy up property cheaply. They could then stop their antics, go elsewhere, and repeat.

12 posted on 05/13/2015 7:59:15 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
Black radical group called MOVE had barricaded itself in a Philly row house and had some sort of standoff going with police.

They had speakers mounted to their house that blasted radical propaganda throughout the neighborhood, they had children running around naked and using the neighborhood as a toilet. They built a bunker on the roof and patrolled it armed. People were angry and scared and the police had to do something. Not so easy when you know they are armed, they are crazy, and they set up barricades to slow you down and make you a sitting duck. The cops decided the best approach was the roof. Basically drop a glorified "flash bang" and drop down. Unfortunately it ignited the gasoline MOVE had stored on the roof and the whole neighborhood went up in flames.

13 posted on 05/13/2015 8:01:35 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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To: pepsi_junkie

This group had murdered one cop last time they were evicted after a year long standoff. And there was a fortified bunker on the roof.
Loudspeakers were blaring revolutionary political messages all night long. They did not believe in sanitation, so they piled their garbage wherever they created it, like cavemen.
They thought pest control was inhumane so their neighbors were treated to cockroach and rat infestations that could not be stopped.

Police moved in to evict them after a court order. They were correctly prepared for war because last time that happened it turned into a year long stand off after the first cop trying to simply serve an eviction order was shot in the back.
As they conducted this latest operation and standoff, it was too dangerous until that bunker on the roof was taken out.
Police are not designed to go up against pillboxes. If you build one and murder cops, you can expect unusual responses borne partly out of not really knowing exactly how to approach it.


14 posted on 05/13/2015 8:07:55 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: pepsi_junkie

“Basically drop a glorified “flash bang” and drop down. Unfortunately it ignited the gasoline MOVE had stored on the roof and the whole neighborhood went up in flames.”

Exactly. And honestly, im not so sure it was unfortunate. It was like a Momar Kaddafy moment. After that block burned down, we haven’t had anymore revolutionary takeovers in Philly for 30 years.

Besides, ive been to Philly, I cannot believe anyone can criticize almost any block in that town being torched. Yes, seriously.


15 posted on 05/13/2015 8:13:21 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Borges

Remarkable that this article nevers mentions that Mayor Wilson Goode, who approved the incendiary device, was black.


16 posted on 05/13/2015 8:32:09 AM PDT by Dr. Thorne (The night is far spent, the day is at hand.- Romans 13:12)
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To: DesertRhino

***Police are not designed to go up against pillboxes. ***

I remember seeing on live TV the Howard Johnson Hotel shootings in New Orleans back in 1973.

After shooting several civilians and cops, the shooter took refuge in the top of an elevator shaft made of cast concrete. One sharp shooter tried to break through the wall with an elephant gun, finally he came out and was shot dead, but the belief he had others in there with him led the police to continue shooting till they stormed the cubicle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Essex


17 posted on 05/13/2015 9:03:46 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Some times you need more than six shots. Much more.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Disgusting that they’re raking this up again to try to make hay out of the other lawless anti-cop behaviors around the country. And whichever White House aide is running this scam has once again chosen a foreign newspaper to spread its evil propaganda that the U.S. is a horribly racist country. After this administration gets done tearing down everything that was accomplished for the good since Reconstruction, it may well be again.


18 posted on 05/13/2015 10:30:44 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (The "legacy of slavery" is not an excuse for inexcusable behavior. --Thomas Sowell)
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To: Borges; Albion Wilde; Tribune7; TAdams8591; WhyisaTexasgirlinPA; wireman; Mr. Binnacle; brityank; ..
**** Philly Metro Ping ****



19 posted on 05/13/2015 4:58:53 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Borges

Google it up. It’s most instructive.

L


20 posted on 05/13/2015 5:00:14 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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