European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 1, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse The siege in Philadelphia May 13, 1985 1. Police evacuate neighbourhood lire department Inos to dislodge Root lop Bunker with Waler Cannon erupts 3. Police helicopter flying Tow Over move building drops explosive Onlo Bunker starting fire that spreads 10 61 surrounding buildings with Cannon bursts 2. Polk in stakeout two houses away Are driven Back by gunfire from move members who have broken through Horn heir building Cucaj tour staff source Cut too non own a Portri the Totne today an pint Street Whert 61 Low Are being built in the aftermath of the fatal Battle lot May Between Philadelphia police and the Radical group move. Publicly behind him concede that he s probably finished. It s too Lale for said councilwoman Joan Krajewsky. Democratic majority Leader. Let the grand jury and he people political consultant Eliot Curson who generally works for Republican candidates said Goodo a in rouble. It s the same for Wilson Hal watergate was for Richard Curson said. Goode denounced the watergate comparison claiming hat unlike president Nixon he did t Fry 10 cover up anything. Instead he ordered a Public investigation and testified before it. Fie Points out. But his testimony often differed from that of his two key aides at the move scene managing Ohe Clor Leo Brooks a Black retired army general and police commissioner Gregore Sambor. Bolh resigned last year. Brooks and Sambor said the mayor was told about the plan to drop the bomb and approved it. Goode insists he never heart of it. Charles Bowser a Black lawyer and move commission member pleaded that Philadelphia must move on " but that Hen t really happened in he year since the disaster. One area of continuing frustration is the rebuilding a the three blocks of destroyed West Philadelphia Row houses a predominantly Black neighbourhood first settled by jewish immigrants after world War i on the Adfle of Cobbs Creek Park. The mayor prom de that the Des Foyed Homes would be replaced and ready for occupancy by Christmas a Promise he withdrew a week after he Maydeil. The revised projection was that everybody who wanted to return would be Back Home this month. The original reconstruction bid was $4.9 million but costs mushroomed despite a feed Price contract to Over $8.1 million. This increased the Price Fromi about $80.000 Lor each of the 61 Homes 10 Over $131,000 in a neighbourhood where the average House Sells for around 530,000. Charges of shoddy construction problems with workers walking off the lob when they weren t paid and questionable Cost overruns prompted Castille to launch a grand jury investigation. One of the 250 Persona left homeless in the move fire became enraged Over efforts to Nellle his property toss claim with the City and shot his lawyer. Ernest Bostic an unemployed Hairdresser who was a Boarder in a House behind move Headquarters agreed to accept $20.000 in a personal Deal he made with the City and then pumped sin bullets into David Novitsky when the attorney advised thai his Law firm would get one third under a fee contract Bostic had signed. Novotsky s firm had planned to seek at least $120,000 for the loss of property and do stress suffered. Bostic was charged with aggravated assault and endangering another person. Meanwhile what happened on thai fateful afternoon a year ago still in t completely Clear. Sambor in speeches around the country claims move members fed the lire started by his bomb by pouring some kind of liquid on it that contradicts his testimony before the commission in which he said he gave the order to firemen to delay battling the flames so the move Bunker on he roof would be destroyed. We re talking about reinventing said commission counsel William Lytton. Even move itself remains something of a mystery. By the Early 1980s wove had evolved into an authoritarian violence threatening cult led by John Africa who came to reject and to place themselves above the Laws customs and social contracts of society said the investigating commission. Move made up almost entirely of Blacks championed Back to Natura rituals lived in fill with rats and other animals refused to Send Ihei children to school or obey health and safety Laws the residents of 6221 Osage Avenue were classified As armed and dangerous. Some were wanted by police. Living in a barricaded House fortified with bunkers on the roof reinforced with sheets of steel and tree trunks move members warned h i / i turn Down the neighbourhood and police a a Vii had been spread across the Row House co j. They it threats abuse and intimidation to terrify their neighbors who finally threatened City of Licals Wilh taking matters into their own hand thecly. Mindful of a i978claifi move members in which a policeman was killed and Many olders and firemen wounded sought to avoid my Contro nation. That inaction was decried by to of the 11 come As being grounded in racial prejudice. The decisions at various cily officials to permit construction of the Bunker to allow Iho use of High explosives in a Lutile Effort to break Inlo the House from Iho Street and. In a 90-Mtttue period Tow firing of at least 10,000 rounds of ammunition Al the House to Sanction the dropping of a bomb on an occupied Row House and to let a fire Burn in a Row House occupied by children in oud not Likely have been made had the move House arid its Oce upans been situated in a comparable White she commission concluded. Former Pennsylvania supreme court Justice Bruce Paullman a commission member disagreed. The tragic events of that Day were caused purely and simply by incompetence bad judgment and other errors. These inadequacies know no racial boundaries and would have resulted in the same tragedy wherever the Sile of resistance May have been Lauttman Al of due Grid with the commission finding that police used excessive and unreasonable Force by using m-16 semiautomatic Rilles. Shotguns and machine guns in the futile Effort to drive move out. The police were entitled to use deadly Force Kauff Mart said. They were attempting to serve lawful in executed warrants upon persons this commission has found to be armed dangerous terroristic and dedicated to provoking a violent confrontation wild authority. Police gunfire did nol result in anyone s deals but rather prevented any police or fire personnel from gelling sunday june 1, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17
