May 13, 1985 is a day that I will never forget. It was the day the infamously racist Philadelphia Police Department and the city’s first African American mayor, Wilson Goode, dropped a C4 explosive bomb on the home of the MOVE family in West Philly, murdering four MOVE children and seven MOVE adults. I was a 15 year old teenager at home in the Black Bottom section of West Philly when I heard, and felt, a huge explosion that shook the ground underneath me as if an earthquake was occurring. I went out onto the second floor balcony of my home to see where the explosion had come from, and saw a great plume of dark smoke in the sky, several miles away across West Philly that resembled a small nuclear mushroom cloud that is only seen on TV.
My father and his friends came onto the balcony to see what had happened as well. They asked me what had happened, and I replied that I didn’t know. I returned into the house to check out the news on TV to see if it will provide me with information about the explosion. And there it was, “Breaking News,” with the news reporter stating the Philadelphia Police Department just dropped a bomb by helicopter on the headquarters of MOVE, as if the MOVE family home was a terrorist group’s headquarters. I ran onto the balcony and told my father that the cops dropped a bomb on the MOVE family. I remember being incensed about what was done to MOVE and telling my father that the Philly police were a bunch of ruthless pigs, and Mayor Goode was a no good Uncle Tom coward for bombing the MOVE children and family to death.
I have known to MOVE family in my neighborhood for most of my young life, and they were known to be a very peaceful, loving, caring, kind, and outspoken group that stood up for the community. Because of those attributes, in my community, we considered MOVE to be good peoples. What the Philly police did to MOVE and their children was criminal, plain and simple, yet not one of those swine were charged for the mass murder of the MOVE family. Long live the MOVE family. I am Kerry Shakaboona Marshall, co-founder and editor of The Movement magazine, Prison Radio correspondent. Thank you for listening.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio
