The MOVE Organization surfaced in Philadelphia during the early 1970's. Characterized by dreadlock hair, the adopted surname "Africa," a principled unity, and an uncompromising commitment to their belief, members practiced the teachings of MOVE founder JOHN AFRICA.
Throughout the 1970's, Frank Rizzo was the premier figure in Philadelphia government. He started as a street cop and rose through the ranks, eventually serving as Police Commissioner from 1967-71.
One of the few media people to accurately report on MOVE and make a serious effort to understand the organization was Mumia Abu-Jamal, a highly regarded Philadelphia journalist and president of the local chapter of the Association of Black Journalists.
Between 6:00 and 7:30 am, police flooded the area with tear gas and fired over 10,000 rounds of ammunition at the house knowing there were women and children inside.
As several MOVE members became eligible for parole, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole issued a special stipulation that any potential MOVE parolee agree not to associate with other MOVE members as a condition of being released.
Immediately following the August 8th assault, the standard police version of events was that MOVE fired the first shot.
Yet the limited number of civilian eyewitnesses, mostly reporters, who had been allowed past police barricades had different ac-counts. Radio reporters Richard Maloney and Larry Rosen both recalled hearing the first shot come from a house diagonally across the street where they saw an arm holding a pistol out of a second floor window.
Although destroying the evidence of a crime is illegal, police sent in bulldozers and had the area leveled by noon, destroying the house, the foundations, and the trees in the yard. No efforts were made to preserve the crime scene, inscribe chalk marks or measure ballistic angles.
With his typical showmanship and bravado, Rizzo held an afternoon city hall press conference around a prominently displayed table of weapons said to have been removed from the now demolished house. As to whether or not this was the last Philadelphia would see of MOVE, Rizzo stated, "The only way we're going to end them is - get that death penalty back in, put them in the electric chair and I'll pull the switch." (Before the year's end, Pennsylvania did reinstate the death penalty, but not retroactively.)
Prior to August 8th, at the request of attorney Oscar Gaskins, Judge Calvin Wilson had issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the house from being demol-ished, but City Solicitor Sheldon Albert had ignored it. At a preliminary hearing on a motion to dismiss based on destruction of evidence, MOVE argued that the destruction of the house prevented them from proving that it was impossible for any MOVE member to have shot Officer Ramp. The Illinois case of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark was cited, where the preservation of the crime scene enabled investigators to prove that all the bullet holes in the walls and doors were the result of police gunfire. Judge Merna Marshal denied MOVE's petition and held them over for trial. (Her health failing, Marshal was unable to preside to the end of the hearing and died of leukemia December 30, 1979.)