May 13 MOVE Protest

As anyone who was alive in Philadelphia in 1985 knows, on May 13 of that year, the city's police department dropped a bomb on the roof of the MOVE house, in advertently igniting containers of kerosene, and subsequently burning down an entire block of 62 houses and killing 11 of the 13 people who were inside the MOVE house. I remember watching it on TV when it happened, even though I was only 13 at the time. It remains a divisive issue in the city, with people taking sides either with the police or with MOVE. Today is the 22nd anniversary of that event.

Every year the survivors, other MOVE members, and their supporters stage a protest. These photos come from the event at Broad and Walnut Streets. An angry young man was shouting through a megaphone to anyone who would listen about the evil system of government we all live with. Most people seemed to ignore what was going on, although I saw a few people stop and take literature from the protesters.





This man, along with a few others at each of the four street corners at Broad and Walnut, was handing out literature about Mumia Abu Jamal, another issue which MOVE has associated itself with. I talked with him for a few minutes, during which time a passing pedestrian shouted "Cop killer!" as he passed. The man responded with a quick "Fuck you!" before resuming his conversation with me:





Another man approached me while I was taking photographs and stared at me in an unfriendly and highly suspicious way. I finally said, "hi there," and he asked me who I was taking photos for. And I told him about Philly Happening.
"Are you sure it's not for a guy named Tony Allen?" he asked.
"Who's Tony Allen? Some guy who doesn't like you?" I responded
"You seem to know all about that then," he said, as if confirming his suspicions.
"No, you just seemed really suspicious about him, so I assume he's not your biggest fan."
I don't think he believed me, but he dropped the subject and we talked for a few minutes more before I moved on.

[update: I looked up Tony Allen, and indeed, he is no fan of MOVE. He runs the "Anti-MOVE/Mumia Blog" Like I said: highly divisive.]