Read on Twitter
On this day in 1985, Philadelphia police fired 10,000 rounds of ammo & dropped 2 bombs on the home of Black activists, igniting a major fire. 11 people trapped inside were killed, incl. 5 children (aged 7 to 13). The #MOVEbombing devastated the neighborhood, destroying 61 homes. 
The military-style attack on MOVE organization involved 500 police officers. The officers had flak jackets, SWAT gear, .50- and .60-caliber machine guns, an anti-tank machine gun and a helicopter, which was used to drop the bombs.
Before the bombing, police & fire dept has used fire hoses to try to force the MOVE members out, but when the bombs ignited a fire that engulfed the entire block, they refused to stop the fire. Instead, they fired at MOVE members attempting to escape the fire.
Everyone in the MOVE house was killed except for a 13-year-old boy and a woman named Ramona Africa. The bombing destroyed a large section of a Black neighborhood in West Philadelphia, making 250 people homeless. Many of the homes in the neighborhood remain abandoned to this day.
In 1996, a federal jury ordered the city to pay a US$ 1.5 million civil suit judgement to survivor Ramona Africa and relatives of two people killed in the bombing, finding the city used excessive force and violated MOVE members' basic constitutional rights.
Despite the court case, the city investigations and apologies, neither the mayor, nor the police commissioner, nor anyone else from the city was ever criminally charged.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
