Philadelphia reckons with the day its police force bombed a house

ON MAY 13TH 1985, 500 police officers surrounded a row house in West Philadelphia. Inside, members of MOVE, an eccentric black liberation and back-to-nature religious group, barricaded the doors and windows. The police and members of MOVE exchanged fire. Police officers fired thousands of rounds of ammunition as well as tear-gas into the house. Then the police department dropped an explosive onto the house from a helicopter, knowing there were children inside. The subsequent fire destroyed more than 60 neighbouring houses, leaving 250 people homeless. The police commissioner ordered the fire department to “let it burn”. Eleven people died, including five children. A special investigation commission in 1986 called the bombing “reckless, ill-conceived” and “unconscionable”.