kame-sennin
Member
goddamnit...
For a lot of black Philadelphians of a certain vintage, like my mother, the swaggering, profanity-spewing Rizzo, the city's former police commissioner, was the face and brains of Philadelphia's brutal, aggressive police force. My mom recounted to me the time he arrested a group of Black Panthers, strip-searched them in public, and invited the press to cover the whole ordeal; photos of the naked, humiliated men were splashed across the pages of the local papers the next day.
And she told me about the time the police shot and killed her friend Ricky, who was a bystander during a shootout and had hidden beneath a nearby car for cover. There was the stuff she didn't witness: the melee that ensued after Rizzo sent hundreds of nightstick-wielding police officers to break up a peaceful demonstration of black high school and junior high school students who were protesting at the Board of Education building. ("Get their black asses!" he was widely quoted as saying during the fracas.) Or the fact that Philly cops were infamous for "turf drops" — instead of taking black folks they'd arrested to jail, they'd leave them in hostile, white ethnic neighborhoods across town.
The enmity that black folks in Philly had for the police department was deep-rooted, and Rizzo had helped sow the seeds. And during his mayoralty, he became even more emboldened. ("I'm gonna be so tough as mayor, I gonna make Attila the Hun look like a faggot," Rizzo was famously quoted as saying.) He was the city's mayor during the first MOVE siege in 1978; during his tenure, the Justice Department would file a lawsuit against the city's police department for brutality.
And she told me about the time the police shot and killed her friend Ricky, who was a bystander during a shootout and had hidden beneath a nearby car for cover. There was the stuff she didn't witness: the melee that ensued after Rizzo sent hundreds of nightstick-wielding police officers to break up a peaceful demonstration of black high school and junior high school students who were protesting at the Board of Education building. ("Get their black asses!" he was widely quoted as saying during the fracas.) Or the fact that Philly cops were infamous for "turf drops" — instead of taking black folks they'd arrested to jail, they'd leave them in hostile, white ethnic neighborhoods across town.
The enmity that black folks in Philly had for the police department was deep-rooted, and Rizzo had helped sow the seeds. And during his mayoralty, he became even more emboldened. ("I'm gonna be so tough as mayor, I gonna make Attila the Hun look like a faggot," Rizzo was famously quoted as saying.) He was the city's mayor during the first MOVE siege in 1978; during his tenure, the Justice Department would file a lawsuit against the city's police department for brutality.
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On Aug. 8, 1978, the tension reached what seemed like its peak. Police tried to remove MOVE from the building with water cannons and battering rams and were met with gunfire from the building's basement. An officer named James Ramp fell to the ground and died. Sixteen other police officers and firefighters were injured.
After several hours of holding out, the MOVE folks finally surrendered and began trickling out of the basement one at a time. But the cops were livid over Ramp's killing. They went after Delbert Africa — the MOVE member who had been taunting them from the building — grabbed him by his dreadlocks and threw him to the ground. Several officers joined in, kicking and stomping him. That moment was captured on film by a Philadelphia Daily News photographer, and for many people, the police beating an unarmed, half-naked man was the showdown's lasting image.
Two years later, nine MOVE members were convicted of third-degree murder in Ramp's death and sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison — the MOVE 9, they were called.
After several hours of holding out, the MOVE folks finally surrendered and began trickling out of the basement one at a time. But the cops were livid over Ramp's killing. They went after Delbert Africa — the MOVE member who had been taunting them from the building — grabbed him by his dreadlocks and threw him to the ground. Several officers joined in, kicking and stomping him. That moment was captured on film by a Philadelphia Daily News photographer, and for many people, the police beating an unarmed, half-naked man was the showdown's lasting image.
Two years later, nine MOVE members were convicted of third-degree murder in Ramp's death and sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison — the MOVE 9, they were called.
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswi...till-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-move-bombing
On that last point, MOVE claims Ramp was hit by friendly fire from the cops, but I can't think of any reason the police would lie.
