Week of events to free the MOVE 9

By Iresha Picot
Philadelphia

May 13, 1985, police bombed the MOVE home.

Imagine you are sleeping in your bed when hundreds of police suddenly attack you and your family in your home. When you refuse to come out, they blast water hoses and pump thousands of bullets into your house. They bulldoze your home, with you and your family sequestered in the basement.

This is what happened to the MOVE family in the Powelton Village section of Philadelphia in August 1978.

Inadvertently, one of those shots fired by police fatally killed Officer James Ramp, yet nine MOVE members were sentenced to 30 to 100 years for the killing. Now imagine almost 34 years later, you are still in prison serving this time. This is the case of the MOVE 9.

After serving their full minimum sentence of 30 years, the MOVE 9 have continually been denied parole. They have been before the parole board unsuccessfully three times since 2008.

On May 13, 1985, the police again attacked a MOVE family home, this time on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. They dropped a military style C-4 bomb that destroyed the surrounding Black community and killed 11 MOVE people, including children.

On the cusp of the 27th anniversary of this attack, the support group “Friends and Family of the MOVE 9,” along with the International Action Center, is organizing a week of events to bring awareness to the MOVE 9 case.

On May 8, the film “MOVE: A Documentary” will be shown at Calvary Church at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, starting at 7 p.m. A panel will feature Temple University Professor Linn Washington; Theresa Shoatz, daughter of political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz; and Betsey Piette from the IAC.

On May 9, starting at 6 p.m. at A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave., there will be a “write-in” to compose letters to state officials and the parole board. On May 10, the panel “Who Are the MOVE 9?” will feature Dr. Anthony Monteiro, Pam Africa and MOVE supporters Abdul John and Maiga Milbourne, following a screening of the film “MOVE: Confrontation in Philadelphia.”

A teach-in about former Philadelphia Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo led by attorney and activist Michael Coard will take place May 11 at Black and Nobel bookstore at 1411 West Erie Ave. The week ends with an organizers’ meeting May 12, led by Ramona Africa and members of the MOVE organization, at Abiding Truth Ministries at 846 S. 57th St. from 12 to 3 p.m.

Thirty-four years is too long for innocent men and women to be in prison. We must keep the MOVE 9’s case at the forefront of our fight for justice — until they are free. Let their mere presence behind enemy walls stir our continued fight for their release from a racist and unjust penal system, so threatened by letting the MOVE 9 free that it is hell-bent on keeping them confined.

The whole of the community has to be involved in bringing the MOVE 9 home. As the revolutionary Che Guevara profoundly stated, “Words are beautiful, but action is supreme.” Ona MOVE!

For more information on these events, visit the MOVE9parole.blogspot.com or email [email protected].