A history of the conflict of the City of Philadelphia and the Black Liberation organization, MOVE, that led to the disastrously violent final confrontation in 1985.
On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped two pounds of military explosives onto a city row house occupied by the radical group MOVE. The resulting fire was not fought for over an hour although firefighters were on the scene with water cannons in place. Five children and six adults were killed and sixty-one homes were destroyed by the six-alarm blaze, one of the largest in the city's history. This dramatic tragedy unfolds through an extraordinary visual record previously withheld from the public. It is a graphic illustration of how prejudice, intolerance and fear can lead to unthinkable acts of violence.—Anonymous
A documentary that looks back to May 13, 1985 - the day Philadelphia police exploded the home occupied by the radical group MOVE, and the resulting fire that killed five children and six adults, while destroying sixty-one homes in its wake.—Anonymous
An account of the incidents leading up to and during the 1985 standoff between the Black Liberation organisation MOVE and Philadelphia authorities. The dramatic clash claimed eleven lives and literally and figuratively devastated an entire community.
The MOVE organization was originally established as a "back to nature" movement that practiced "green" methods. When their methods became more radical, featuring profane bullhorn speeches, unsanitary conditions, and questionable child raising, the group began to draw the attention of the Philadelphia community and the police alike. The conviction of nine members for the third degree murder of a policeman after a shoot-out in 1978 further cemented the group's belief that the police were corrupt and determined to bring the movement down. In 1985, after countless complaints from neighbors about obscene broadcasts and health hazards, the police department decided to take action to evict the group from their row house on Osage Avenue. When gun fire broke out and tear gas was not enough to pull the MOVE members out of the house, the police decided to drop explosives on the house. A fire soon began to blaze, endangering the several children now trapped inside the house. In a controversial decision, the police made the decision to "let the fire burn", resulting in the destruction of over 60 homes and the death of five children and six adults. The investigation commission that followed found that city leaders and law enforcement had acted negligently, but no criminal charges were filed.
