Philadelphia Stops Policing Of MOVE House
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
PHILADELPHIA — Police ended their nearly 20-year practice of providing around-the-clock security at the former headquarters of the radical back-to-nature group MOVE, a city official said.
The city bought the property after a May 1985 clash between police and MOVE members in which officers dropped a bomb on the group’s West Philadelphia row house from a helicopter, killing 11 people and sparking a fire that destroyed 61 homes.
The houses were rebuilt, and police began monitoring the former MOVE home in the late 1980s when MOVE members disputed the city’s possession of the property.
The 24-hour security detail, in place since 1987 or 1988, ended Monday, said Joe Grace, a spokesman for Mayor John Street. The security had been costing the city about $400,000 a year, he said. Police will still patrol the area, Mr. Grace said.
“There will be security provided, electronic surveillance of some kind, there will be police patrols, but we won’t get into the details of that,” he said.
MOVE members, led by founder John Africa, practiced a lifestyle that shunned modern conveniences, preached equal rights for animals, and rejected government authority.
