Move (organization)
Move (MOVE) is an Afro-American , political and, by its own admission, "nature-related" organization.
It was founded in 1972 by Vincent Leaphart (1931–1985), alias John Africa, and Donald Glassy - a white academic from the University of Pennsylvania - in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, USA . The members had the adopted surname "Africa". Outwardly, they were characterized by their dreadlock haircut, which was initially seen as provocative for the white upper class. In the early years, their activities were primarily directed against the “ corruption of the system”. They also advocate children's and animal rights . Contrary to the norm of society, they composted their garbage, avoided the use of technical devices and taught their children at home ( home schooling ). Triggered by the brutal crackdown by the police, the group radicalized itself early on.
history
Origin and views
MOVE was founded in 1972 as the Christian Movement for Life by the charismatic leader Vincent Leaphart aka John Africa. Africa, a functionally illiterate, dictated a document to graduate student Donald Glassey that came to be known as The Guideline . In it he advocated a return to a society of hunters and gatherers and rejected scientific, technical and medical progress. His followers took the surname Africa, following his example, to show their respect for their mother continent, and wore their hair in dreadlocks . In 1973 Glassey bought a house in Powelton Village, an alternative neighborhood in Philadelphia. John Africa and other MOVE members formed a commune there.
Activities before 1978
In March 1976 there was a night encounter with police officers at the house. According to information from MOVE, members were brutally beaten and, among other things, the three-week Life Africa was killed by police brutality. As evidence, journalists and city officials were invited into the house and the child's body was presented. MOVE refused an autopsy on the body. From September 1976 MOVE members began to hoard weapons and bombs and to barricade the house. After municipal inspectors were given legal access to the MOVE house in 1977, MOVE members appeared in front of their house with shotguns, rifles and pistols, some in khaki uniforms.
Shootout 1978
After further negotiations failed, the Powelton Village house was surrounded by 300 police officers and firefighters in August 1978. In the shooting that followed, one police officer, James Ramp, was killed and seven other police officers, five firefighters, three MOVE members and three bystanders were injured. According to MOVE, the police shot first and killed Ramp with their own fire, according to the police, the first shots came from the MOVE house. Camera footage shows police officers beating and kicking Delbert Africa as they drag him out of the house. John Africa is not present at the confrontation. After the confrontation, the house is leveled immediately. According to the authorities, this was done to prevent MOVE from holing up there again. MOVE sees the demolition of the house as a deliberate destruction of evidence.
Nine MOVE members were sentenced to between 30 and 100 years in prison for the death of the police officer. According to the ballistic report submitted in the process, the bullet that killed Ramp came from a rifle that had recently been purchased by Phil Africa (1956–2015) and was found in the MOVE house. Two of the MOVE Nines, Merle and Phil Africa, have since died of natural causes in prison. For seven convicts, probation hearings have been permitted since 2008, which were initially denied but are repeated annually. According to John Africa, no Philadelphia sports team will ever win a title until the Move Nine is released.
Two of the MOVE members have since been released from prison.
1985 bombing
In 1981, MOVE moved the community to a row house on Osage Avenue in another area of West Philadelphia. On May 13, 1985, this too was finally to be cleared, according to the police, in response to complaints from residents about the political speeches that had lasted for months, and also to the compost heap because of the health hazard posed by human excrement. First, tear gas grenades were thrown into the building and the roof was shot at with two water cannons. A kind of bunker had been built by MOVE on the roof, from which the police and fire brigade were shot. After an intense exchange of fire in the following two hours, there was no task in sight, and in the afternoon a C4 explosive charge weighing just under 2 kg was dropped from a helicopter onto the roof. As a result of the explosion, the house and eventually the entire block caught fire, ultimately destroying 53 homes and leaving over 200 people homeless. Eleven MOVE members, including the founder John Africa, five children and five other adults died in the fire, Ramona Africa and one child escaped.
Mayor Wilson Goode soon after set up a commission of inquiry known commonly as the MOVE commission. Their report, published on March 6, 1986, described the dropping of the explosive charge on an inhabited row house as "unscrupulous". In 1996, the city of Philadelphia was sentenced in a civil lawsuit in federal court to pay a survivor and two family members $ 1.5 million. The jury found that the city had used inappropriate force to evict the house.
In the years following the bombing, the city raised more than $ 45 million in rebuilding costs. The reconstruction was made more complicated by the fact that a participating entrepreneur was convicted of poor craftsmanship and theft. By 2007 there was a police surveillance of the house, which by then cost about 4 million dollars.
Murder of John Gilbride in 2002
John Africa's widow, Alberta Africa, married John Gilbride Jr after his death and had a child with him, Zachary Africa, around 1996. In 1999, Gilbride filed for divorce. In a subsequent custody dispute, he was finally granted partial custody of his son in 2002, which allowed him unattended visits. MOVE announced that it would oppose this judgment with all its might and again barricaded the house. A few hours before his first visit to his son, Gilbride was killed by an unknown assailant using a rapid-fire weapon. The case has still not been resolved. MOVE originally claimed that the government had Gilbride executed in order to postpone the MOVE murder, but in 2009 Alberta Africa stated that Gilbride was alive and hiding somewhere.
Current activities
Ramona Africa is the current spokesperson for the group and lectures at leftist events in the US and other countries. In addition, the group is trying to obtain the release of MOVE sympathizer Mumia Abu-Jamal , who has been incarcerated since 1981 for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner . Its support group Concerned Friends and Relatives of Mumia Abu-Jamal is led by group member Pam Africa.
Web links
- Move (english)
- 1996 New York Times article on the bombing and trial
- MOVE-critical blog by a former member
Individual evidence
- ^ Wagner-Pacifici, RE: Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE. Chicago 1996
- ^ A b Nicola, LR, Thornburg, T., Muncie, I .: Injustice in America: The city of Philadelphia's handling of the MOVE organization. 1991
- ↑ http://www.angelfire.com/ga/dregeye/move.html Excerpt from "25 years on the MOVE"
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated June 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 'I'm ecstatic': black liberation prisoner Mike Africa Sr released after 40 years , The Guardian , October 23, 2018
- ↑ Timothy J. Lombardo: Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia and Populist Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2018, ISBN 978-0-8122-5054-1 , p. 213.
- ↑ CATHERINE LUCEY, philly.com: Cost is beyond belief, May 6, 2010, online at [1]
