MOVE's changing of the guard

Outside of the MOVE house, located at 6221 Osage Ave., two white, concrete-filled buckets spaced one car-length apart support two identical metal signs.

Each reads, "Permit Parking for Philadelphia Police and Civil Affairs," and, for nearly 20 years, these signs marked the parking space reserved for a Philadelphia Police Department squad car.

Police were assigned in 1985 to 24-hour surveillance duty of the headquarters for MOVE - an anti-establishment radical organization devoted to a back-to-nature philosophy - after bombing it 22 years ago.

On May 13, 1985, following complaints from community members about MOVE's confrontational tactics and equipped with arrest warrants for four MOVE members, Philadelphia Police surrounded the house, dropped a bomb on it and opened fire, killing 11 members, including founder John Africa.

Today, however, the spot is not filled by a Philadelphia Police vehicle, and the officers in charge of securing the house are no longer a constant presence.

The City of Philadelphia decided this month to reduce the police presence at the house - originally installed to prevent the area from becoming a hotbed for violence - and instead instituted a combination of periodic daily checks and an alarm system linked directly to police headquarters.

"We believe that this redeployment and installation of an alarm will protect this home and keep that community safe," said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia's Department of Human Services. "And if we have any reason to believe we have to get an officer back in the home, we'll do so."

According to Qualli, the decision was a matter of using police officers most effectively and efficiently.

"Financially, it makes sense," he said. "We can redeploy in a manner that makes more sense and that is more cost effective."

Temple journalism professor Linn Washington, a reporter who covered the events at the MOVE house extensively in the 1970s and '80s, agreed that PPD resources should be reevaluated.

"The city maintaining the police presence was a colossal waste of money," said Washington.

"The cops could do better patrolling drug corners - they don't need to be sitting around."

However, Philadelphia Police officers were not always just sitting around.

MOVE, which is not an acronym for anything, and the PPD have a long and troubled history stemming from the group's aggressive, and sometimes violent, protest tactics and the Philadelphia Police's use of significant force.

After clashing with police at the organization's first location at 33rd and Powelton streets on Aug. 8, 1978 - a conflict that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of the nine members of the organization later known as the MOVE 9 - MOVE and the police engaged in their most notorious interaction with bombing of the Osage Avenue house in May of 1985.

Area resident Wayne Jones, 58, grew up on the 6200 block of Osage and, while he did not live there during the conflict, recalled the event vividly.

"The police and firemen were just watching [the house] burn, like you would at a cookout," Jones said. "When I found out there were people in the house, that was really horrible."

Shortly after the incident, the city acquired the house and installed a constant peacekeeping detail of, on average, five officers.

Yet today, with the PPD's reduction of its presence, the episodes involving MOVE and the city - a difficult chapter of the city's history - risk being swept under the rug.

"Many people today have little or no recollection of what happened there, particularly the generation under 30," Washington said. "In many ways it's ancient history and forgotten history - whatever happened, it's not going to become an issue in the mayoral campaign."

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