MOVE

Last Thursday was May 13th and also the 25th anniversary of the Philadelphia police dropping a bomb on MOVE headquarters.

The bomb consisted of four pounds of C-4 plastic explosive and resulted in 11 deaths and 65 homes being destroyed.

No one from city government was charged despite an investigative commission that found, “Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable."

In a 1996 civil suit in U.S. federal court, a jury ordered the City of Philadelphia to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two people killed in the incident.

MOVE was founded in 1972 and its members were primarily African-American who believed in a radical form of the green movement and opposed modern science, medicine and technology.

Their anti-technology, animal rights stance led members to compost garbage (including human waster) at their commune. This practice attracted rats and other vermin as well as the wrath of their neighbors.

Needless to say, the police and MOVE had a “history” going back to 1978. Essentially relations between the police and MOVE continued to deteriorate until the events in 1985.

The police were supposedly responding to complaints against MOVE and began to lob tear gas bombs into the MOVE headquarters. For reasons that I have never heard, the police then sent in a helicopter armed with the C-4 and dropped it on the roof of MOVE headquarters.

It sounds like something out of a bad movie but this really happened. Supposed “peace officers” decided to go military on civilians. Unfortunately for the MOVE members, the police had no idea how powerful four pounds of C-4 can be.

Twenty-five years later, have we learned much? FBI sharpshooters kill Vicki Weaver and her son in 1992. The following year (1993), the BATF engage in a stand-off with members of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Ultimately, six Branch Davidians and four agents were killed.

Today we have a higher distrust of our government since perhaps the Vietnam war. Speaking of, new evidence is coming out about the shootings at Kent State University where four students were killed and nine others wounded by the Ohio National Guard. The shootings occurred 30 years ago on May 4th.

Our overseas friends aren’t fairing much better with the economic collapse first in Iceland and then later in Greece.

Britain just voted out Gordon Brown and now has a coalition government for the first time since WWII.

No, I’m not packing my family up and moving to some mountain retreat. However, I can’t help but feel out elected leaders are not learning from the mistakes of the past and we are heading into some very chaotic times. The US government seems to respond by taking even more of our civil rights away in the name of security. I doubt this practice will either make us safe or eliminate the chaos that seem to be pervading the world.