28
votes
May 13th, 1985: The day Philadelphia police bombed a city street, leaving 250 homeless and eleven dead, including five children
Link information
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- Title
- The day police bombed a city street: can scars of 1985 Move atrocity be healed?
- Authors
- Ed Pilkington
- Published
- May 10 2020
- Word count
- 2030 words
As someone who lives in Philly, and was in the city when it happened, let me tell you how surreal the whole experience was. No one believes me when I mention it because no one wants to believe it could happen. Saying they bombed the street doesn't do it justice: they dropped an actual bomb from a helicopter onto a city block.
Now, let me tell you something about Philadelphia: the city is almost entirely rowhomes. So, every house on that block shared a common wall with two neighbors. A fire doesn't have to "jump" from house to house, it just flows from one building to the next. As a kid, my house caught on fire because a latchkey kid neighbor tried to cook and did a critical fumble. Our top floor was pretty much unlivable, and that was from a cooking fire. You can image what an actual bomb could do.
Getting them out unharmed, by dropping a fucking bomb on them! Why these people weren't ever prosecuted is beyond me.
In my mind, if the people responsible for the deaths of 11 people were never prosecuted and are still alive, I'm not really sure how there can be reconciliation.
If anyone is interested in learning more, I highly recommend the PBS documentary Let the Fire Burn.
Let me put it a little more into perspective. Two years later Mayor Goode ran for (and won) re-election.
Hoooooly shit. What the fuck.
The thing I don't get the most is that people are having to fight just to get a "sorry" out. This was obscenely unconscionable; no apology can make up for this shit, yet they won't even give that. This is unbelievable.
I think this is an especially apt time to post this:
https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md
If you want, just skip past the Imperialism section and move straight into 'Internal Repression'.
Just remember, the USA literally killed people over wage increases and a 40 hour workweek.
As far as I’m concerned, the catchphrase should be “No forgiveness before prosecution”. There is no way I would be willing to offer any party forgiveness without them being investigated and prosecuted.