• Got_Bent@lemmy.world
    134·
    8 months ago

    The only surviving adult MOVE member, Ramona Africa, refused to testify in court and was charged and convicted on charges of riot and conspiracy; she served seven years in prison.

    Jesus Christ! No criminal charges against police so let’s imprison the sole surviving victim!

    (She did get a handsome settlement years later, so there’s that but holy hell man)

  • Godric@lemmy.world
    81·
    8 months ago

    The police obtained arrest warrants in 1985 charging four MOVE occupants with crimes including parole violations, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terroristic threats. Mayor Wilson Goode and police commissioner Gregore J. Sambor classified MOVE as a terrorist organization. Police evacuated residents of the area from the neighborhood prior to their action. Residents were told that they would be able to return to their homes after a 24-hour period.

    There was an armed standoff with police, who threw tear gas canisters at the building. The MOVE members fired at them, and a gunfight with semi-automatic and automatic firearms ensued for 90 minutes… At 2 p.m., Sambor ordered that the compound be bombed.

    From a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, Philadelphia Police Department proceeded to drop two 1.5-pound bombs (which the police referred to as “entry devices”) made of Tovex, a dynamite substitute, combined with two pounds of FBI-supplied C-4, targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house. The bombs exploded after 45 seconds, igniting the fuel of a gasoline-powered generator and setting the house on fire, which was left to burn. Officials later stated that this was to let the fire burn through the roof and destroy the “bunker”, so police could then drop tear gas into the house and flush out the occupants.

    30 minutes later, firefighters moved in to control the fire but there was gunfire and the firefighters and police were ordered back as the fire spread to neighboring houses down the street.

    The only two MOVE survivors, Birdie Africa, who was 13 at the time, and Ramona Africa, both escaped the house. Police initially said that two men had also run out of the house at the same time and fired at them and that police had returned fire. Ramona Africa said that police fired at those trying to escape. Police said that MOVE members moved in and out of the house shooting at the police. The fire department later declared the fire under control at 11:47 p.m.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
    66·
    8 months ago

    And racist think this kind of life destroying event generation after generations doesn’t have a negative impact on a group of people. The fact that Black Americans have anything should be applauded. This is just one event, look up Oklahoma massacre, or our wide spread lynchings history. There are still to this day southern families that have body parts of black lynching victims because that’s just what their ancestors did back in the day. Hunt down black people that didn’t stay in line and mount a piece of their body over the mantel as a family heirloom.

      • cerement@slrpnk.net
        22·
        8 months ago

        but only the third (?) time that US citizens were subject to aerial bombardment … so, um … there’s that?

        • ZorsithEnglish
          22·
          8 months ago

          I suggest looking up what the Pinkertons were about as well. The US had a nasty history when it comes to the poor and people of color who get “uppity”.

          They still exist to this day, and do the same business. There more recent thing was being hired by Wizards of the Coast to intimidate someone who received MTG cards before official release date.

          This was a big stink on the R site; there is no reason to maintain that company name except to capitalize on its horrifying reputation.

          • littleblue✨@lemmy.world
            17·
            8 months ago

            I know very well what the Pinkertons did back then — and are still doing as part of various union-buster merc groups hired by Amazon, Starbucks, etc. (the WotC thing is a blip that happened to ruffle geek feathers, so it bubbled up over there), but the simple fact that the general public doesn’t (want to?) connect the dots between alt-right, cop gangs, and mercs like the Pinkertons is only one reason that this nation will continue to be slavery based, no matter the cosmetic flourish every 4+ years. 🤌🏽

            • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
              5·
              8 months ago

              Pinkertons today is a brand name purchased by a Swedish security firm. It has nothing to do with the previous Pinkertons and (fellow) D&D nerds circlejerking that the guys from Red Dead Redemption had come to (literally ask to) retrieve stolen property without involving the law was very embarrassing.

              • ZorsithEnglish
                12·
                8 months ago

                If it had nothing to do with the name, they would have dropped the name. The reputation behind the name is the point. Plenty of people knew who the pinkertons were before Rockstar released grand theft cowboy.

                • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
                  3·
                  8 months ago

                  Just so we’re clear, your argument is that this Swedish firm have the same name as 19th century American “mercs” therefore modern day slavery is real?

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
        4·
        8 months ago

        We were taught about the Trail of Tears when I was a kid. Is it no longer taught? Wait, I got transferred to a private school in fifth grade. That might be where it came up.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
      34·
      8 months ago

      I remember this craziness.

      I remember that craziness because as a young adult, I was working nearby and saw the smoke clouds.

      …and of course, it was all considered ok.

      I’m unaware of anyone at all those days who considered it ‘all okay.’ On the contrary, it put a kind of national spotlight on Philly police’ brutality going back to the Rizzo days, and doubtless contributed to Rizzo never being mayor again. And I think even amongst the folks who believed the bombing was justified, a large segment had to admit that it obviously went very, very wrong.

      All that said-- yeah, as a nation I’m not sure we learned a damn thing out of all that. The police certainly didn’t appear to.

      • fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
        6·
        8 months ago

        In the SE USA where I was about to graduate from high school, in the local news it was presented as “inner city terrorists handled with appropriated force”

        • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
          5·
          8 months ago

          I’m not surprised there was a deal of confusion about it. It was a complicated affair that doesn’t have much analogue in contemporary history AFAIK.

          • fritobugger2017@lemmy.world
            3·
            8 months ago

            It wasn’t until I went to university in the fall of that same year in a large metropolitan city with a diverse collection of dazzling urbanites that I was exposed to other points of view.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 months ago

        a large segment had to admit that it obviously went very, very wrong.

        I’m just imagining the conversation it took for such a chuckle fucker to knock off that racket. Like ok imagine it’s your baby in the building. walking a person through each scenario as a painful exercise.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      24·
      8 months ago

      Militarization of the police has been a wild fucking ride over the last 40 years.

      Acorn drops and some pimple-faced teenager with a badge goes on a shooting rampage. Then we’re told he needs better training, so we spend another couple million dollars bringing in IDF officers to train local cops on effective use of Skunk spray

      • orrk@lemmy.world
        2·
        7 months ago

        to be fair, they “extra training” seems to be learning Hitler quotes and killology(the idea that police killing people is a good thing)

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
    33·
    8 months ago

    Technically, they bombed a home. But it was a row home and they were too stupid to think about what happens when you set fire to a home connected to a bunch of others

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    11·
    8 months ago

    Also Lemmy far-left people: It literally couldn’t get any worse than Biden not decriminalizing weed as fast as I wanted him to. I don’t see how letting Trump come to power would even make a difference.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        10·
        8 months ago

        I actually do think it’s a fake viewpoint – I don’t think a lot of people on the left actually think this; I think that most of the “far left” people on Lemmy who are saying it are propaganda trolls trying to depress the vote on the left in the upcoming election. But I’ve definitely had people say exactly this to me.

        Maybe I should have made it clear that I’m not attacking actual “far left” people with my statement, yes; that’s fair.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        6·
        8 months ago

        It actually does take a lot more than one person.

        • Pardoning federal prisoners, Biden can do all on his own, and already did. (Didn’t do all that much because more people are in state prison for state charges. But, if you’re one of those people who’s now out of prison, it’s pretty significant I think.)
        • Rescheduling marijuana takes agreement from the DEA, who aren’t exactly weed-radicals, and the value of doing it is a little limited in the first place. He requested to reschedule it years ago and they’ve been dragging their feet on it for whatever reason up until very very recently.
        • A bill for decriminalization is where the real significant change can come. There were a couple of them that came along, of which probably the most serious effort was a bill for full legalization. It passed the house, but there was a little bit of Democratic opposition when it reached the senate, and of course all the Republicans voted against it, so it failed. So, quite literally, 50 people would have been needed in order to pass it, but we couldn’t get the 50 together, which is why it’s still federally illegal.
  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
    8·
    8 months ago

    Imagine being firebombed because you’re a shit neighbor (this is what I understood after a glance on the wiki page about MOVE, the two times the police went after them, it began as complaints from neighbors)

    There was an armed standoff with police,[8] who lobbed tear gas canisters at the building. The MOVE members fired at them in return, and a 90-minute gunfight ensued, in which one officer was bruised in the back by gunfire.[38] Police used more than ten thousand rounds of ammunition before Commissioner Sambor ordered that the compound be bombed

    Fucking hell, 10k rounds? How?