FEDERAL COURT ACTS TO PROTECT GUILTY OFFICIALS
After an 11-year cover-up of local and federal culpa for the
May 13, 1985, bombing of the "City of Brotherly Love's" populous
Cobbs Creek neighborhood, a federal civil petit jury in Philadelphia awarded
$1.5 million in damages for "pain and suffering" to MOVE survivor
Ramona Africa and the families of John and James Africa, who were killed
in the resulting fire. The jury held former Police Commissioner Gregor Sambor
and former Fire Commissioner William Richmond responsible and directed each
to pay $1 a week punitive damages for 11 years, a clear attempt to address
the 11-year suppression of redress by the government itself, but federal
judge Louis Pollock overturned that portion of the jury's decision. The
outrage and fear which have afflicted the burned-out community for over
a decade continued to punctuate all attempts by the judge to "jury-rig"
a "balanced" settlement of the federal court case. No one has
yet been held responsible for the civilian bombing of an entire West Philadelphia
row-house neighborhood for political reasons, thinly veiled behind a merely
ticketable violation of "creating a public nuisance."
The subsequent holocaust killed 11 children, women and men of MOVE, and
left 1,026 victims homeless, with nothing but the clothes they wore. It
took years for the city to rebuild the firestormed rubble, during which
time the families or residents received no compensation. The victims were
offered nothing; Ramona Africa was forced to serve seven years in prison
for the crime of being the sole adult survivor of the blaze. No official
has been held legally responsible for the death and destruction. The legal
situation is still that "a crime was committed, but there were no criminals,"
the line the state has pursued for over a decade.
Crimes But No Criminals
It was Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first black mayor, who used MOVE's support
to get elected and then presided over the MOVE bombing and slaughter, as
well as the subsequent holocaust that leveled a neighborhood. Goode, who
stated at the time of the MOVE bombing that he would take all responsibility
for ordering the high-explosive attack, neither paid any compensation or
penalty nor suffered any legal or administrative repercussions as a result.
Unanswered throughout the trial are such questions of accountability as,
who ordered the firing of 10,000 rounds of ammunition at people fleeing
a burning building? Who authorized procurement of the bomb and then its
use? Who ordered the fire department to stand by and watch the fire spread
from the bombed building to the entire neighborhood before making any effort
to put it out?
The occasional denunciations of Ramona Africa for "bringing all this
trouble into the neighborhood" ignore the support MOVE had enjoyed
from the community when it was the primary focus of police harassment and
persecution under Police Commissioner -later Mayor-Frank Rizzo. At that
time, being pro-MOVE was synonymous with being anti-police brutality. Only
after a persistent press campaign isolated MOVE from its base of community
support was it possible to drop a bomb and get away with it.
A Mayor's commission investigation and federal grand jury did nothing to
explain how the government determined to bomb civilian residents and to
bring the responsible parties to justice. The unthinkable became a precedent:
an officially perpetrated act of aggression by a government against its
own population in which human beings were killed, contrary to even the rules
of civilized warfare, was rubber-stamped and allowed to go unaddressed and
unpunished. It was an act some commentators called the first skirmish in
the Second American Civil War.
Military Attack
"This was a military attack on a low-income, African-American, working
class neighborhood," said a member of the Citizens Fact Finding Committee.
"The equipment used, the munitions, the legal requirements for use,
the collusion of different levels of government, and the never-ending cover-up
all show it. They made war on us. When Hitler's planes did that to Basque
civilians during the Spanish Civil War, the whole world protested. Famous
artists made paintings about it. Where has everyone been since we were bombed?"
Sgt. Edward Conner, the only helicopter crew member to not resort to the
Fifth Amendment when subpoenaed, testified before Castille's Commission
in 1986 that ex-Police Commissioner Sambor had given him permission to procure
heavy military weapons from a private supplier.
One Citizens Fact Finding Committee technical consultant on the scene May
13 compared the color of the fire to that of aluminum halite-fed explosions
such as those used in Vietnam.
Despite the war-like aggression on a domestic civilian population in peacetime,
the award of monetary damages to bombing survivors will be paid entirely
by city taxpayers, not the guilty parties. The precedent can now be used
to permit other firebombings, because to this day, no one has been found
criminally liable except Ramona Africa!
FBI Involvement Not Examined
The commission report revealed the FBI provided Philadelphia's police department
with over 35 pounds of military explosives in January 1985, due to a need
"diagnosed" by federal agents.
The civil case left the blame on local officials, yet with no accountability
owed by them to the people, who were not allowed to examine recorded FBI
involvement in the decision to bomb, nor the federal clearance that would
have been necessary for the city to obtain such weaponry.
"This clearly signals to law enforcement officials nationwide that
the price tag will not be too high if they bomb and burn those they can
tar with a brush like MOVE," said CCBPP Chairman Melvin Dickson. "We've
since seen this done in Waco, Texas. Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (BATF) totally incinerated a compound, killing over 80 people,
children included. Most recently, the FBI was lauded for its handling of
the Freemen in Montana by getting their surrender without bloodshed, with
no mention of the now well-established record of ruthless mass murder by
federal law enforcement. Now, any racial, religious or political minority
can be isolated and discredited in a media campaign, then attacked by bombing,
tanks and armed assault."
When the houses in blocks bordering Osage Avenue were burned to the ground,
and members of MOVE living in a house on that street were all killed but
one, there was no voice or outrage, no protests, no marches in the streets.
The fear was gripping, and no one wanted to be associated as a MOVE sympathizer.
Without strong organization to articulate a position and bring out community
support, Ramona Africa and other plaintiffs have not obtained justice. The
government's acts were so egregious they did win a damage award, which Ramona
Africa defiantly proclaims is of no importance because it is justice and
accountability she is after. There is outrage in the community-but without
organization it has no face, no strength, no voice. A trial is no more and
no less than a trial, unless the community is organized, united and committed
to protect all its members against unlawful outside intervention in its
affairs.
--Adapted from "Jury Grants MOVE Bombing Survivor $1.5 million in Compromise
Verdict," by Commemorator staff, The Commmemorator, February 1997,
p. 1.
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