Soon, May 13th will pass by, and most will see it as just another day, but for others who know its significance, it is a day that shall live in infamy. For on May 13th, 1985 Philadelphia police, with the criminal support of state police, the FBI, and other agencies, conspired to stage mass murder against members of the MOVE organization: men, women, and children, who were bombed in their West Philadelphia home, and when fire forced them to leave, they were shot by police, and their bodies thrown into the flames to be consumed.
That was 28 years ago and from that day to this, not one cop, politician, or official has faced a minute in jail. Only one person, Ramona Africa, who survived the massacre, spent seven years in prison on riot charges for daring to survive. Remember, eleven men, women, and babies were bombed. And no one, but one woman who survived, ever saw the inside of a prison cell. We should also remember that the May 13th massacre did not occur, as is often reported, because of community complaints of noise pollution, but because MOVE people were protesting the unjust imprisonment of other MOVE people on August 8th, 1978.
Nowhere in Pennsylvania history, but in the case of MOVE, have we seen such sentences as these. Thirty to one hundred years? MOVE people protested against it. The city, using complaints as pretexts for urban war, launched an attack designed to achieve what it did: massive destruction, desolation, and death. They wanted to shut up and shut down MOVE protests permanently. So, they built bombs and dropped them – May 13th, 1985, Mother’s Day. After hours of splashing high-pressure water cannons down on them, state police, the FBI, and other agencies bombed their West Philadelphia home. They turned the water off to let the fire burn, and burn it did. And when fire forced them to leave, they were shot by police, and their bodies thrown into the flames to be consumed. 11 people dead, over 60 homes destroyed. Cops celebrated. May 13th. Remember. From in prison nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
