The 1985 MOVE bombing, locally known by its date, May 13, 1985, was the destruction of residential homes in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by the Philadelphia Police Department during a standoff with MOVE, a black liberation organization. Philadelphia police dropped two explosive devices from a helicopter onto the roof of a house occupied by MOVE. The Philadelphia Police Department allowed the resulting fire to burn out of control, destroying 61 previously evacuated neighboring homes over two city blocks and leaving 250 people homeless. Six adults and five children were killed in the attack, with one adult and one child surviving. A lawsuit in federal court found that the city used excessive force and violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
The callousness manifested by the police is truly shocking. “Allowed the fire to burn out of control” is important here – the cops deliberately denied firefighters access to the scene so they could deal with the spreading fire. “WTF” is exactly right.
For more depth on this, I recommend the CBC podcast “The Africas vs America”. It’s weird that the incident isn’t better known given how wild the story is.
Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
The callousness manifested by the police is truly shocking. “Allowed the fire to burn out of control” is important here – the cops deliberately denied firefighters access to the scene so they could deal with the spreading fire. “WTF” is exactly right.
For more depth on this, I recommend the CBC podcast “The Africas vs America”. It’s weird that the incident isn’t better known given how wild the story is.