All were agitated by the divisions it had underscored and created. On May 3, Rizzo acquiesced in a court-approved compromise: MOVE would surrender its weapons, allow an inspection of the house, and, finally, leave the house by August 1; in exchange, the city agreed not to arrest members who had no outstanding warrants and to expedite the trials of jailed members.
A Court of Common Pleas judge issued arrest warrants for the adult occupants. At dawn on August 8, the authorities towed parked vehicles off the block; then the police ordered, through a bullhorn, the MOVE occupants to vacate the house immediately. When MOVE refused to comply, a police-driven bulldozer pulverized the wooden barricade members had erected in the front of the house; a cherry picker followed in the path of the bulldozer and knocked out the wooden slats MOVE had mounted on windows.
High-pressure hoses blasted thousands of gallons of water into the house. A gun battle ensued. A veteran police officer, James Ramp, was killed in the melee; two other officers and three firefighters were wounded. Tear gas finally forced MOVE to surrender. The police arrested 12 adults and removed 11 children, ages 18 months to 12 years, from the battered house, which, by evening, was a pile of rubble. No child was injured. In December , 11 MOVE members, including Delbert Africa, stood trial for murder and the lesser crimes of aggravated assault and conspiracy.
In May , nine of the defendants five men and four women were convicted in the murder of James Ramp and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 30 to years. View Image Details. On May 13, , the eviction process went awry, resulting in a day-long gun battle between MOVE and city police. In the early evening, a satchel bomb dropped from a police helicopter onto the barricade ignited a fire that the fire department failed to control.
From the early s MOVE survived and thrived in a remnant form, resettling in the Spruce Hill neighborhood, living peacefully with neighbors, taking up the cause of the imprisoned activist Mumia Abul-Jamal, and continuing to work for the release of the surviving members of the MOVE 9. Search form Search.
Toggle navigation West Philadelphia Collaborative History. The fire caused by the explosion killed 11 people, an atrocity that Philadelphia still grapples with today. Osage Avenue neighbors describe their life with Move leading up to the bombing and destruction of their homes. In this video, Osage Avenue neighbors describe the aftermath of the destruction of their homes in Skip to content. From Our Archives. By the end of the botched confrontation, 11 people were dead and 61 homes had been burned down.
Several innocent MOVE members were convicted of murder, enraging other members. Leader John Africa began a counterattack on Christmas Eve, At the MOVE headquarters at Osage Avenue, members set up several loudspeakers and began shouting profanities at their neighbors. Even more ominously, MOVE began assembling a cache of weapons and building bunkers in their row house.
Everything came to a head in May when Mayor W. Authorities soon realized that there was very little they could do to remove MOVE members from their entrenched position. At about p.
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