The city of brotherly continues to struggle with the legacy of a bombing by police in 1985.
"35 years ago Philadelphia dropped a bomb on MOVE and abandoned a neighborhood. Time to say ‘Sorry," The Philadelphia Inquirer headlined a new editorial.
"Former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode has called on the city of Philadelphia — in an oped published by The Guardian — to issue a formal apology Wednesday, the 35th anniversary of the day his administration dropped a bomb on a group of citizens," the newspaper noted. "The action claimed the lives of six adults and five children and burned a neighborhood to the ground."
"Both Mayor Jim Kenney and City Council president Darrell Clarke have so far remained mum on whether they will respond," the newspaper noted. "Still, it is an opportunity for city leaders to acknowledge some hard truths -- about how race was at the center of a terrible loss of life and livelihood then, and 35 years later, it remains at the center of a terrible loss of life and livelihood."
"On May 13, 1985, the police, after a day-long confrontation with the black radical and naturalist group MOVE in an attempt to evict their compound on 6221 Osage Avenue, dropped an explosive device on the roof of the building. The roof caught fire. Committed to achieve ‘tactical superiority’ to his mission, then-Police Commissioner, Gregore J. Sambor, told the fire commissioner to let the fire burn. Eleven people including five children died, 61 houses burned, and at least 250 people were left homeless," the newspaper reported. "The vast majority of victims — MOVE and neighbors — were black."
"Mayor Jim Kenney and City Council President Darrell Clarke might have not been there on that day in 1985, but they are here today, as heirs to the city’s leadership history – and its future. Acknowledging mistakes is a powerful way to move forward and to demand change– even if those mistakes were made by someone else," the newspaper explained.
