On last evening I went to see the film, Let The Fire Burn, a documentary about the events leading up to the May 13, 1985 city's bombing of one home and burning of an entire neighborhood in the heart of Philadelphia. All in an effort to evict MOVE a "Black liberation", back to nature group who had set up shop in a family oriented, Black middle class urban community.
I remember all too well the ultimate day, the inevitable show down between MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) following years of disputes and frustrations with the shenanigans of the group. It was interesting to watch the film and revisit my emotions which were all over the place; from being angry with MOVE and empathizing with their neighbors who were literally terrorized by the very presence of this group defacing and disrespecting their neighborhood, disturbing their peacefulness, to remembering just how racist former Mayor and Police Commissioner frank rizzo, his fire commissioner brother, their successors and the Philadelphia PD were believed to be and getting angry at the way they treated MOVE members, especially the babies and children, AND the community whose homes they sat by and let burn burn to the ground. UNbelievable...
I recall when leaving for work that morning to my social work job at a nearby state prison, that the cops and MOVE were at a standoff. An actual war was erupting on an urban street? Or was it? The movie reminded me that the cops exhausted 10,000 rounds of ammunition and confirmed that MOVE had only 6 inoperable guns... While outlandish and vulgar for sure, they tortured their neighbors spewing all kinds of vile rhetoric via loud speakers and bull horns at all times of the day and night, they rejected violence and claimed to only use force in defense of self...
By the time I got home that beautiful spring evening, my Mother who was working in the yard, her favorite past time, greeted me with news that the media had been covering the story all day and that the neighborhood was ablaze. By helicopter, the cops had dropped a bomb ON a row house IN the MIDDLE OF A CITY BLOCK!!! I could not believe that!!! All day they had used tear gas and fire hoses to evict these people and now that the block was on fire, they just sat there and watched??? As though the poor people who were cursed to be neighbors to these people had not been punished enough, now they were losing their homes and EVERYthing they owned... Did not seem fair and certainly, even at 25, made no sense! I knew that such would never have been the reaction given another neighborhood...
At 25, I remember thinking how foolish was Mayor Wilson Goode for taking "full responsibility" for a fire that was still burning. He could not have possibly had the facts. At 25 I wondered WHY would a Black Mayor take full responsibility for the actions of men everyone knew/thought to be racists and who certainly had an ax to grind with MOVE who had allegedly killed a "brother in blue" during another "shoot out" with the PPD. I may have my incidents confused but the movie pointed out that forensics following one of these major "shoot outs" determined that the MOVE group had only inoperable guns... It is a fact however that at no time were the two equally armed.
Let the Fire Burn was a good documentary comprised of film footage of media coverage and public hearings. It is well done and worth the watch, particularly if you lived in or near the city during that time. You will remember the cast of characters and the horrific events. It is showing around the country, check it out if you can...
