PHILADELPHIA (WOLF) — Forty years after Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on a West Philadelphia rowhome occupied by members of the MOVE organization, the tragedy remains one of the most controversial and traumatic events in modern American policing history.
On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police attempted to evict members of MOVE — a Black liberation and back-to-nature group founded by John Africa — from their home at 6221 Osage Avenue. The confrontation escalated into a standoff involving hundreds of officers, tear gas, gunfire, and eventually an aerial bomb dropped from a state police helicopter onto the roof of the home.
The bomb ignited a fire city officials allowed to burn for more than an hour…