A Few Words On MOVE And $20,000

I am very certain that the members and supporters of the MOVE Organization are now aware of the fact that there is a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the murder of John Gilbride.

It is something that they cannot be happy about.

MOVE has, since John’s death, worked fervently on a number of fronts to ensure that the world forgets about John, what happened to him, and especially the fact that the man’s son is still caught up in the death grip of MOVE’s madness.

They have also attempted to demonize and threaten those who would raise uncomfortable and inconvenient questions as to the group’s possible role in John’s murder.

It must be said however, that they have failed, at least partially.

Now, with the news of a reward, MOVE’s leaders are again reminded that John Gilbride may be dead, but he is certainly not forgotten.

Not forgotten either is how shifty, and dare I say, suspiciously, the group has acted since John’s death.

The news of a reward for information about John’s murder has brought the kind of silence from MOVE that deafens. With MOVE, it is often what they do not say that is most important. Is this not the same group that just protested Michael Smerconish for his mentioning of Mumia in a recent column in the Philadelphia Daily News?

So here we have a group of people that considered John a “brother” whom they “loved”. A group that has some resources, some capacity to spread their messages, and some access to the so-called “independent” media as well as the “mainstream. Yet they fail to do anything in order to pursue justice for their former comrade, save for concocting inane and insulting conspiracy theories that serve only to deflect attention away from themselves. A pitiful monument to a man that was once married to the leader of MOVE.

Each September, since John’s murder, one might expect MOVE to at least remind the world of one of their own who they claim was murdered by the “government” as they do each August and May. Nope. Doesn’t happen. John who?

Further you might expect MOVE to be expending at least some of it’s resources in an attempt to locate the “real” murderer of John Gilbride. This did not happen while I was in MOVE and I believe that I can reasonably say that such efforts are not underway now. Even if you are one to believe that the it was the “government” who killed John, does that mean that an endeavor to bring his killers to justice would be fruitless? In fact I would think that if MOVE’s leaders really did believe that there was some kind of conspiracy that they would be all the more dedicated to uncovering the facts of the case.

MOVE is a group that has literally cast itself as a perpetual victim of such governmental abuses and whose members have been making a good living at it for a long time, so why would they not want to add John’s name upon their heap of martyrs?

The answer to the above question is clear.

MOVE wants John Gilbride and anything to do with him to disappear. Forever.

That is why they do not have anything on their website about seeking justice for John. That is why their was no mention of John during MOVE’s recent exhibition at the African-American Museum. That is why they pretend that I do not exist. That is why they waged a vulgar and libelous campaign against John Gilbride’s family, that did not end with his death. And that is why they make no mention of the reward today.

Now it may come to be that MOVE, begrudgingly, makes some kind of self-serving statement regarding the most recent development in John’s case. But no one should make the mistake of believing that the name of John Gilbride passes through the lips of MOVE’s leaders with any semblance of willingness.