The MOVE Disaster - Essay Example

1 Overview: The MOVE disaster MOVE, a small radical organization of some blacks, had become a law and order headache for Philadelphia citizens and police department as well since its inception in 1972. On May 13, 1985, the city police used force and bombed the home of MOVE members with a view to eliminating their threat perennially. It resulted in the death of 11 MOVE members and destruction of 61 adjacent homes. After that, it had come to be known as the MOVE disaster. Background of the disaster MOVE, founded in 1972 by Vincent Leaphart and Donald Glassey, had campaigned for opposing the technology development and advancing the cause of ‘back to nature’ philosophy. Vincent changed his name as John Africa and all his followers and MOVE members too had added the term ‘Africa’ as their surnames. The cofounder Glassey had a home in Powelton village neighborhood of Philadelphia and made it their headquarters (Powelton Village, 1978). In a very short period, the MOVE had attained the look of a radical force campaigning against the use of technology. CNN quite often used to describe it in its news dispatches as a loose knit organization of blacks advocating the ‘back to nature’ lifestyle and preaching against technology. The ‘back to nature’ lifestyle methods of MOVE members had caused severe sanitarian problems to the neighbors who complained against their activities. Acting on the complaint, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered a blockade of the neighborhood to get the MOVE members out of the house on August 8, 2 1978 but it was not successful. In the subsequent firing, between police and MOVE members, one police officer was killed and some police officers were injured. As a follow up measure, Leaphart and eight other MOVE members were arrested and sentenced to prison on murder charges. The remaining followers of Leaphart had then moved into a house in the Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia owned by a relative of one of the MOVE members (Osage Avenue, 1985, first para) and continued their activities. Moreover, the public continued to lodge complaints against them on and off. The disaster: What happened? On May 13, 1985, the day of the disaster, a major confrontation took place between the MOVE members and the Philadelphia police. The police planned to open fire, evict the radicals, and arrest them. Accordingly, they started opening fire on the MOVE home attracting return fire. But a heavy and long encounter followed between the police and the MOVE members in which the former used 10000 rounds of ammunition, tear gas and explosives to break down the heavily fortified MOVE house. As the encounter failed to make the MOVE members surrender, the bombing unit of the police, as a last resort, dropped on their house at 5.27 PM a square package of explosives designed to destroy a bunker atop the house and drop it through to the second floor where the radicals were residing. The heavy impact of the bombing had ignited a big fire spreading very fast to the neighboring homes. It resulted in the death of 11 persons in the MOVE home 3 including 5 children and the destruction of 61 adjacent homes rendering 250 residents homeless. Police targeted the MOVE home and bombed it from a helicopter but it ended up in the unwanted disaster badly affecting the neighbors too. The fire had become controllable at 11.40 PM only (Background, second Para and William K. Stevens / New York Times 14may 85). The disaster: Why did it happen? The disaster was the result of bad planning on the part of the police and other officials involved in the operation. The lane in which the MOVE home stood was narrow and congested and the police knew it. Moreover, all the adjacent homes were somehow in a row and linked to the MOVE house on either side. As the bomb fell on the MOVE home from above, the impact was heavy and resulted in an explosion and big fire damaging the neighboring houses. When the fire broke out, it had spread very fast destroying other houses before the fire was under control at 11.40 pm and it took some more hours for the police and the Fire services personnel to put out the fire completely. As the fire was not put out immediately, it resulted in the heavy loss and destruction of property- the neighboring homes. The disaster: The players involved 1. Mayor W. Wilson Goode: W. Wilson Goode was the mayor of Philadelphia at the time of the disaster. He was the person who had taken the decision to attack the MOVE home which led to the unwanted 4 disaster. Goode served as Managing Director till he was elected Mayor of the city in 1983. During his tenure as the Managing Director, he had built up an excellent reputation in the administration. In the year Goode was elected Mayor, MOVE again came into the limelight, began maintaining a high profile, and intensified its agitation. MOVE members, residing in a house at 6200 Block of Osage Avenue in the middle class black neighborhood of Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia, continued to demand the release of Vincent Leaphart and other arrested leaders of their movement. In May 1984, they started repeating their demands through loud speakers from their house tops and in October of the same year, they had constructed a bunker on the roof of their home. Along side, they had also continued with their ‘back to nature’ methods in answering the nature calls and creating sanitation problems to their neighbors. After assuming the Mayor role, Goode, all the while knowing about the unacceptable demands, peculiar protesting methods and illegal activities of the MOVE members, had killed his time attempting negotiations with them and trying to gain a peaceful settlement of the issue. All these attempts had ended as futile exercises. 2. The Police Commissioner, Gregore Sambor Gregore Sambor, in his capacity as the city police commissioner, had arrived with his force at the MOVE home in the morning hours on the day of disaster. According to Leo Brooks, the City Managing Director, Sambor had brought arrest warrants with him to 5 arrest 4 MOVE members and asked them to surrender. The police had promised them that they would not fire at them in case they surrendered. The MOVE members were given a grace period of 15 minutes to surrender but, instead of surrendering, the radicals responded with "vitriolic talk" over a loudspeaker and then started firing (Arrived with warrants). Police had responded with encounter firing which had lasted for several hours. 3. Fire Commissioner, William Richmond William Richmond, in his capacity as the Fire Commissioner, had arrived with his fire force to put out the fire , srtuggled for hours to bring it under control and finally succeeded in controlling it at 11.40 PM . It was only after some more hours that it was put out completely. It must be said that Richmond had done his job in a dutiful and responsile manner and given the hugeness of the tragedy, he had performed his role in a commendable manner. The dimensions of the fire could be imagined in the words of Steve Harmon, one of the horrified residents, who said, “Drop a bomb on residential area? I never in my life heard of that. Its like Vietnam” (Aimed to hit bunker). Analysis: The disaster was the direct result of lack of planning on the part of the civil administraiton officials involved in the operation. Mayor was known among the public and the officials as an administrator paying attention for minute details. But during the 6 two brief meetings that discussed the action on the MOVE home, there were no discussions on the miute details related to this operation. It never occurred to their mind that the neighboring homes, towed up in a row, might be badly affected and destroyed in an operation of this magnitude. When viewd overall, the decision seemed to be a climax of hurly-burly negotiations and the operation to be a result of the badly and ill designed plan. What was highly astonishing was that the Mayor had decided to while away his time for more than a year-and –half with attempts to negotiate with the MOVE members, knowing full well that they were adamant in their attitude and could not be convinced into giving up their unwarrented lifestyle and acceptng the mainstream of social life. Most surprisingly, Mayor Goode was absent at the scene during the confrontation that had resulted in the disaster (Ryan Rice). Certainly, Mayor Goode and his police staff acted in a post- haste manner in the entire operation. At least , Police Chief Gregore Sambore should have foreseen the damage, raised the issue with Goode and argued against the proposed action. For a moment, both of them conveniently forgot that they were only dealing with their own citizens but who were really perverted and in ignorance. It is also a pity that it never occurred to the bombing squad of the city police who dropped the bomb from a helicopter that dropping a bomb from such a height woul result in a fire tragedy. The MOVE disaster stands out as an odd public administration act in the history of Philadelphia in particular and in the history of US in general. The crux of the matter is that the administration acted very late and that too in a badly designed manner. Has the subsequent administrators leant any lessons? 7 Works cited: Powelton Village, 1978. Confrontations with police. Move.17 Nov.2005 Osage Avenue, 1985. Background. 17 Nov.2005 Background .Urban archives. Philadelphia social investigation commission. MOVE commission. 17 Nov.2005 and William K. Stevens / New York Times 14may 85 . Police drop bomb on Radicals’ home in Philadelphia. 17 Nov.2005 Arrived with warrants, Police drop bomb on Radicals’ home in Philadelphia.17 Nov.2005 Aimed to hit bunker. Police drop bomb on Radicals’ home in Philadelphia. 17 Nov.2005 Ryan Rice. Stillman Case, 8: MOVE disaster. Two paradoxes. 18 Nov. 2005 Read More