A Letter To The Parole Board Regarding MOVE

Keep MOVE In Jail http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-parole-for-the-move-9.html

(Reprinted From The Philadelphia FOP Website)

Kelly Krokos
Victim Assistance Coordinator
Office Of The Victim Advocate
1101 S Front Street Suite 5200
Harrisburg PA 17104

Dear Ms Krokos:

In response to your correspondence of November 20, 2007, I am writing to you concerning the Parole review of the following individuals:

William Phillips, Parole #7765P
Delbert Orr, Parole #8053K
Edward Goodman, Parole #0640J
Michael Davis, Parole #7420P

In the most rigid and unyielding terms possible, I am requesting the Parole Board to deny granting Parole to these individuals.

I firmly believe that their release from prison would definitely jeopardize the safety and well-being of the Citizens of Philadelphia, as they are part of a dangerous terrorist group known as "MOVE.". The members of this group are still active and have followers within our City.
The four MOVE members, who are now seeking Parole for the ruthless murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer, were part of a rebellious body of people who, on August 8, 1978, challenged the authority of Philadelphia’s Government by inciting a shootout with Police.

My memory of this shootout is unforgettable. Etched in my mind forever is seeing Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp being shot to death, along with three other Stakeout Unit Officers and six Firemen all writing in pain, as a result of each one being shot and seriously wounded during the violent confrontation.

All the members of the MOVE Organization, including the four principals mentioned in this correspondence, had a history of intimidating, assaulting, and terrorizing their neighbors in the Powelton Village area of Philadelphia for a number of years.

However, the confrontation MOVE had with Police on August 8, 1978, actually started fifteen months earlier on May 20, 1977, when this "back to nature group", all of whom use the surname "Africa," brandished an arsenal of makeshift bombs, rifles, and automatic weapons. They threatened police with their weapons while at the same time, cursing and screaming insults at the Police through the use of a bullhorn, from the porch of their 33rd Street "fortress".

The Command Staff of the Philadelphia Police Department chose not to have a confrontation, at this time. Instead, they chose to investigate and observe this Group of terrorists, gathering intelligence information over the next 15 months.

As one of the Investigators, I knew William Phillips, Delbert Orr, Edward Goodman, and Michael Davis, along with the other MOVE members to be anti-social, non-conformists, who did not work, and seldom washed themselves. They wore their hair in dread-locks, peppered their language with many obscenities, and had their children go naked. In addition, they collected welfare checks and lived in a rat, roach, and rodent infested house that was overrun with dozens of flea-bitten dogs. The house was strewn with garbage, animal feces and filth. The smell in the vicinity of the house, which lingered heavily in the air, was sickening. The foul odors, filth, and rotting garbage all types of insects. The smell was so bad that many Police Officers who were assigned to the Detail, often complained of nausea and gagging every time they had to be in the near proximity of the MOVE compound.

In continuing, the MOVE group were known to traffic in drugs and conspire in the manufacture and possession of bombs. In addition, their assaults and intimidation of their neighbors continued on a daily basis. This was the make-up of the terrorist group MOVE by which the Philadelphia Police were confronted with on that fateful August day in 1978.

At one point, Monsignor Charles Devlin of the Cardinal Commission on Human Relations, along with a Police Representative urged the MOVE group to surrender, prior to the Police serving Warrants of Arrest and Eviction on the members of this radical group.

The MOVE members failed to respond to several warnings by Police to leave the premises.

Their refusal, resulted in bulldozers with bulletproof shields being called in to knock down the fortifications of the MOVE compound. Rats-as big as cats-scampered from the compound as the bulldozers pressed forward.

At one point, the Police Stakeout Unit entered the premises but could not find anyone on the first three floors. The MOVE members, including William Phillips, Delbert Orr, Edward Goodman, and Michael Davis, all armed with weapons had already retreated to the basement in preparation for their "last stand." This information was confirmed when a Stakeout Officer, assigned to the perimeter, reported he saw members of MOVE armed with rifles and automatic weapons.

In an effort to disrupt MOVE’s line of fire, high pressure water deluge guns were used by Philadelphia Firefighters in an attempt to flush them out . Shortly after the deluge guns went into action, a barrage of bullets were fired at police from the basement windows of the MOVE compound. Police, in return, quickly exchanged gunfire with a heavy volley of bullets coming from their own fortifications.

Police and Firefighters alike had to retreat from their original positions in an effort to protect themselves from MOVE’s deadly attack. At this point, the intensity of the firefight increased and so did the casualties, as hundreds of bullets were being fired at each other. Stakeout Police Officer Tom Hesson was in the middle of the gun battle, when he saw his friend and veteran Stakeout Officer Jim Ramp get shot. Officer Ramp was immediately knocked to the ground as a result of a high velocity bullet striking him in the neck. The bullet shattered Officer Ramp’s collarbone, traversed his body, and then entered his head, killing him instantly. This veteran Stake out Officer, loving father, and highly decorated Marine Gunnery Sergeant’s lifeless body now lay dead in the street. He was killed by a merciless radical group, whose philosophy was now one in which their teachings professed that: "Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun."

At this time, I saw Officer Hesson (not knowing the seriousness of Officer Ramp’s injury) instinctively go to Officer Ramp’s aid, without regard to his own safety. Unfortunately, Officer Hesson was shot in the chest, right below the heart, as he tried to make his way through a hail of bullets. The high velocity bullet that tore through Officer Hesson’s Shield, protective vest, and finally his chest, broke into several pieces upon impact. Bullet fragments went into Officer Henson’s lung, spleen, stomach, and diaphragm. A fragment also nicked his heart. Officer Hesson stated later that he could feel the blood leaving his body. He thought about dying. The important things in his life flashed before him. He was afraid he would never see his wife or two children again. Despite his urgency to live, he had to struggle to keep his eyes open. He knew if he closed them, he might never open his eyes again!

Lieutenant Bill Krause of the Stakeout Unit was also shot. The Lieutenant took a bullet in the right arm, blowing away most of the tissue and arm muscle. The bullet continued traveling into his side, causing extensive damage is it ripped into his abdomen and colon.

Stakeout Officer Charles Stewart was another victim of MOVE’s viciousness, as he lay in excruciating pain. Blood was spurting, like a faucet, from his wounds. Officer Stewart was bleeding from his neck. He also had a large gaping hole in his thigh. As we helped carry Officer Stewart to the wagon for transportation to the hospital, I couldn’t help to think what kind of weapons and ammunition was being used by MOVE to cause such a large wound in the Officer’s leg.

All three Stakeout Officers,-Tom Hesson, William Krause, and Charles Stewart-never fully recovered from their injuries on that fateful day. The three Officers were placed on Permanent Disability, as they were unable to return to Police work.

The Philadelphia Police had finally ended MOVE’s fifteen month siege at Powelton Village forty five minutes after the shooting began. The surrender of the of the revolutionary group MOVE ended a violent era in the history of Philadelphia. The weapons confiscated from the MOVE compound included: two, .45 caliber semi-automatic pistols, two, 12 gauge shotguns; three .22 caliber semi-automatic rifles; two .30 caliber carbines, one, 7.65 Mauser; and approximately 2,000 rounds of ammunition. The arrests culminated in a lengthy trial in which nine of the MOVE members who were charged with murder, conspiracy, and related offenses were convicted of their crimes. Within that group were;: William Phillps, Delbert Orr, Edward Goodman, and Michael Davis..

Despite the fact that the offenders went to jail for lengthy prison terms , it will not bring Officer James Ramp back to life. Jim Ramp will never again have the opportunity to love, laugh, or enjoy his family. Officer Ramp’s love for life was stolen by hostile terrorists, whose hearts are filled with hate. Let us not forget the family of Jim Ramp. We cannot share their pain. We cannot share their pain. We cannot share their loneliness, nor can we replace a love that was forever lost.

Let us not forget the anguish and agony endured by Officers Tom Hesson, Charles Stewart, and Lieutenant Bill Krause in their attempts to recover from the debilitating injuries that adversely affected their lives. May the courage of these Officers never become a faded memory of the past, nor may the courage of Police Officer James Ramp be forever sealed in the silence of death. We shall never forget the service and sacrifice of these Officers, as we want their spirit to live on forever.

It is for the reasons set forth herein this letter that I firmly and respectfully request that the Parole Board deny granting Parole to:

William Phillips, Parole #7765P
Delbert Orr, Parole #8053K
Edward Goodman, Parole #0640J
Michael Davis, Parole #742OP

In the event that you have any questions, or if I can be of any further service to you in communicating how much danger to the public it would present if these terrorists of MOVE were to be paroled, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Respectfully yours,
Michael G. Lutz
Immediate Past President
Pennsylvania State Lodge
Fraternal Order Of Police

MOVE Members Due For A Parole Hearing

Sign The Petition To Keep The MOVE 9 In Prison

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-parole-for-the-move-9.html

By Emilie Lounsberry

Inquirer Staff Writer

Seven MOVE members who have been behind bars since 1978 for their part in the shoot-out that killed Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp and injured seven others are up for parole soon - amid a swell of opposition from police and prosecutors.

The seven are scheduled for parole interviews in April, and it will then be up to the state Board of Probation and Parole to decide whether they would be able to walk out of prison. Five of nine votes would be required for parole to be granted.

"I don't think they should ever get out," said Thomas Hesson, 69, a retired police officer who was shot in the chest in the Aug. 8, 1978, confrontation. His wounds, he added, nearly cost him his life and ruined his career.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office also has weighed in, urging the board to require the defendants to serve the maximum of their 30- to 100-year prison terms.

"They got 30 to 100 for a reason," Deputy District Attorney John Delaney said yesterday.
He said he wrote a letter to the board asking in the "strongest possible terms" that parole be denied.

The seven were among nine MOVE members convicted in a 19-week trial in 1980 that, at the time, was the longest and most expensive in Pennsylvania history. An eighth defendant will be eligible for parole next year and a ninth died in prison.

All nine were found guilty of third-degree murder in the shooting death of Ramp, and the attempted murders of the others shot and injured that day, when police tried to evict 12 adults and 11 children from their headquarters at 33d and Pearl Streets in Powelton Village.
Prosecutors contended there was no doubt the fatal shot came from inside the MOVE house because a ballistics match between a weapon found in the house and bullet fragments in Ramp's body proved that the rifle killed him.

As Common Pleas Judge Edwin S. Malmed sentenced them, the defendants shouted obscenities at him.

The seven with scheduled parole interviews in April are: Delbert Orr Africa, Edward Goodman Africa, William Phillips Africa, Michael Davis Africa, Janet Hollaway Africa, Jeanene Phillips Africa and Debbie Sims Africa. Charles Sims Africa probably will have an interview in November; his minimum date is in February 2009.

They are held in state prisons across Pennsylvania, including Graterford and Dallas.
The 1978 confrontation was a pivotal moment in the city's torturous history with the radical group and ultimately set the stage for another disastrous event - the May 1985 conflagration that killed 11 MOVE members, including five children, and destroyed 62 houses along Osage Avenue. The 11 were killed after police dropped an incendiary device on the MOVE compound and decided to let it burn.

If released, some of the defendants might have some money waiting for them.
In 1990, the city agreed to pay $2.5 million to end a lawsuit brought by parents of the five children who died in the May 13, 1985, siege - including Delbert Orr Africa and Janet Holloway Africa for the death of their daughter, Delisha, 12; and William Phillips Africa and Jeanene Phillips Africa for the death of their son, Philip Delmar, 12.

Offenders are usually interviewed for parole consideration three months before they reach their minimum sentence. Parole can be granted at any time between the minimum and the maximum sentence. Over the course of the last year, the board granted parole in 61 percent of the cases it considered.

MOVE - which started out as a back-to-nature organization but which is known more for generating support for people it believes have become political prisoners - is not an acronym, and all members use the surname Africa.

Members of the group have long railed against the conviction of the nine, saying that prosecutors were never able to prove who fired the fatal shot.

MOVE member Ramona Africa said yesterday that she hoped the parole board doesn't force them to serve their maximums.

"There's no reason at all for them not to be paroled," said Africa, who served her maximum prison sentence related to charges filed after the 1985 MOVE bombing.

"We have no confidence in this system," she said. "Of course they want to come home. They've been away from their family for 30 years. But we never expect anything right from this system."

Paul Hetznecker, the lawyer who represented the MOVE members for years, said he hoped they would be paroled.

"It would be outrageous not to be released after all these years," Hetznecker said, adding that there was a "lack of evidence presented during the trial," especially about the three female defendants, who he said were in the basement trying to protect children during the confrontation.

But the city's law enforcement community hopes all the defendants will remain behind bars.
Michael G. Lutz, vice president of Lodge 5 of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, wrote a letter to the board urging that parole be rejected.

In the letter, Lutz evoked the memory of Ramp and also cited the three other officers who were shot and injured.

"May the courage of these officers never become a faded memory of the past, nor may the courage of Police Officer James Ramp be forever sealed in the silence of death," he wrote in the letter, which is on the FOP Web site.

Hesson, the retired officer wounded in the encounter that killed Ramp, said that even so many

years later, the events remain unforgettable. "It never leaves your mind," he said.

“MOVE 9" To Have Parole Hearing In April

(James Ramp who was murdered by MOVE)

According to a post at the Philly IMC by a Mumia and MOVE supporter there will a parole hearing for the eight surviving members of the "MOVE 9".

The members of the cult were convicted of murdering Philadelphia Police Officer James Ramp and on a host of other charges stemming from a MOVE instigated "confrontation" that culminated in a shoot-out that left Ramp dead and several other Police Officers and Firefighters wounded.

In one of the longest and costliest trials in Philadelphia’s history, the cult members were all convicted and given 30-100 year sentences. Another MOVE member who was tried separately has already been released from prison and served out her parole and is currently a full-fledged member of the group. This fact should be a reminder that MOVE members can be released on parole, despite their history and the nature of their crimes.

MOVE supporters are stepping up their efforts to gain the release of those MOVE members still imprisoned. A new statement about their efforts was recently posted online that provides some insight into the minds of those who would support members of a child-abusing, cop-killing cult.
According to the MOVE supporter:

"This April parole hearing is SO important. Letters and calls to the Parole Board now can really help. Phil is asking that folks send copies of their letters to him. He wants to take a pile of copies of our letters to the hearing as a show of public support.

It is probably a good idea for folks to send letters to each of the nine Board members. The chairperson was appointed by Ed "1985 Bomber" Rendell so don't count on her getting your message to the whole Board."

In addition to exhorting their followers over the internet, MOVE members, through their international travels have been gaining signatures and having people from all over the world send letters and make calls to the parole board in an effort to convince the board that the cultists should be released.

For those of you who don’t know, the case against the "MOVE 9" is and was solid. Ballistics evidence linked the murder weapon to MOVE, the group threatened to murder police, eyewitnesses testified to seeing MOVE firing, and their own children confirmed the fact that MOVE fired on Police Officers. The Officer who was killed, James Ramp, a Korean war veteran and a two decade veteran of the mean streets of Philadelphia was cruelly shot down as he broke cover and went to aid a fellow Officer who had been gravely wounded by gunfire coming from the MOVE compound. He had no chance to say good-bye to his wife and son as he died on the cement across the street from MOVE members who undoubtably celebrated their "achievement".

For their part, MOVE members have not once taken responsibility for their actions on that day. They claim they had no weapons, that the weapons that were found in the house had been placed there by police. They have consistently claimed that they never fired a shot that day and that James Ramp and the others wounded that day were struck by gunfire from fellow Officers who were looking for a pretext to destroy MOVE. And for the record, if that were true, it would have been the largest "friendly fire" incident in Police history. This would also mean that dozens of Police Officers who were at the scene, ballistics experts, and numerous others who had knowledge of the case were a part of a conspiracy that lasts to this day. The conspiracy theory is absurdity in the extreme, but there are those who will always believe such things, but there are those who will listen or rather read evidence.

In order to thoughtfully counter some of the pro-MOVE propaganda and activism, I started a petition and provided contact information for the parole board in the hopes that people will express their disgust at the idea of releasing convicted cop-killers out onto the street.
The murderers of James Ramp would be released from prison back into the day to day operations of the MOVE cult. It is a group that celebrates the murder of Police Officers, but that is just one aspect of the group.

It is essentially a criminal organization from the top down. From simple welfare fraud, to the illegal fund-raising for Mumia, to the intimidation of it’s critics, MOVE is a vile enterprise. And worse yet, the group is dedicated to de-humanize the children in their midst while forcing girls as young as 11 or 12 to become pregnant. Girls who can barely write their names, who never had a chance, and remain the group’s constant victims. Babies having babies who are emotionally crippled and are fulfilling the one role that John Africa had set for the girls of MOVE and that is to produce more children for the cult to control.

The group continues to entice new followers through it’s online activities and through the "Free Mumia" movement. They also are cast in a sympathetic light in the new film about Jamal called "In Prison My Whole Life", as they ply their trade of that of being perpetually victimized by the evil "system".

Worse yet, there are those who ought to know better serving as enablers for MOVE. They place MOVE members upon a pedestal and in doing so give the group a sense of legitimacy that the sect does not deserve. By keeping quite about the child-rape in MOVE, they allow it to continue and their silence about the murder in 2002 of former MOVE adherent John Gilbride is nothing short of deafening.

The murder of Officer Ramp was indeed a tragedy. To release MOVE members out into the streets that he died trying to keep safe is not only a smack in the face of the city’s police officers.
In releasing them, the parole board would ensure that the children of MOVE will continue to be abused, that more MOVE members will be recruited, and a group of violent zealots will be allowed to walk the street or scarier still, disappear into the world of MOVE.

Please sign the petition and encourage others to do so as I would like to have it sent out prior to the hearing. Also, the phone calls and letters cannot hurt. I am also looking to provide a place on my website for those who were victimized by MOVE or would like to share their experiences with the group from a law enforcement perspective. I can be reached at sept27th2002@yahoo.com

You can reach the Parole Board at:

Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1101 South Front Street, Suite #5100,
Harrisburg,

PA 17104-2517, tel: (717) 787-5699

Sign the petition to keep the MOVE 9 in jail go to:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-parole-for-the-move-9.html

For more information about those responsible for Officer Ramp’s death visit
http://themoveorganization.com/or you can search this site or email me at sept27th2002@yahoo.com

Another Jamal Appeal Tossed Out Of Court

(pic of Daniel Faulkner)

By Emilie Lounsberry



Inquirer Staff Writer



Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, lost another round in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday even as he awaits a pivotal ruling from a federal appeals court.



The state's highest court rejected Abu-Jamal's request for a hearing into his contention that witnesses in his case committed perjury. The justices concluded that he had waited too long before raising his arguments.



In his quarter-century of appeals, Abu-Jamal, 53, has become the focus of an international debate about the death penalty, with supporters around the world questioning whether he received a fair trial or might even be innocent.



But Abu-Jamal has lost three previous times in the state Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction and death sentence.



In 2001, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. upheld the conviction but threw out the death sentence, ruling that Abu-Jamal must be sentenced to life in prison or get a chance to persuade a new Philadelphia jury that he deserves life rather than death.



Yohn concluded that the jury in Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial might have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on mitigating circumstances, factors that might have caused jurors to opt for life.



A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has been considering whether to reinstate the death sentence or uphold Yohn's decision. The court also could order a new trial, or a hearing on Abu-Jamal's contention that blacks were unfairly excluded from his jury.



If the Third Circuit panel reinstates the death sentence, Abu-Jamal moves closer to execution, and his best chance for avoiding lethal injection would be a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears fewer than 2 percent of all petitions filed each year.

William Francome Not A "Censor" Just A Tool

I have come to believe that the fanatic who wears their politics on their sleeve and lets fly the hatred in their heart is preferable to the ones who are smart enough to mask their nature with the cloak of courtesy and project a sense of sophistication and even fairness.

To be sure, I had more than one conversation or email exchange with a number of individuals who had been further enamored with MOVE as a result of the particular brand of propaganda that I espoused for the group.

My somewhat "analytical" defenses of MOVE appealed to people who were not so into the usual MOVE screed that is written as much as an assault on the English language as it is the "system". Not everyone is into the whole "ALL CAPS", "LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA’s VOODOO, that is often the way that MOVE members and supporters choose to "communicate".

This brings me to my contempt for people like William Francome, who like many before him, is an ideologue disguised as "truth seeker". He is smart enough to act as a complete pro-Mumia propagandist while avoiding defending the positions that he takes, and of course is un-failingly polite.

I think there is nothing I loathe more than the in-authentic. Those who enter the market place of ideas with boilerplate propaganda in order to exploit a situation for either political or personal gain, and than retreat into the nether regions of "political correctness" when confronted and asked to defend the outrageous positions that they take.

Such is the case with William Francome of the "Free Mumia" film "In Prison My Whole Life". It is bad enough that he ducked out of the questions he vowed to me that he would answer, but than when I posted those questions on HIS site, that they were removed. Yet the personal attack on me by Michael Schiffman, a true Mumiaphiliac, is left on the site.

When I wrote Francome about the "censorship" of my postings on his site, he responded with the following email:

Hey Tony,

I didn't delete any of your comments, it was someone else who also helps run this site. I've instructed them not to do so as I'm a complete believer in freedom of speech and debate on the issues. I will make sure it doesn't happen again, but if it does let me know.

Will

Wow. I look forward to the day when I could have the gravitas to blame someone else for something that occurs on my website.

Terribly annoyed by his patronizing tone and reflecting upon the thought of Mumia’s concern for the free speech of Officer Faulkner when he was blowing the wounded man’s brains across a cold sidewalk, I wrote the following message back to William, which of course did not elicit a reply.

Will,

It is your name on the site. Your "work" is all over it. If the people you work with aren't aware of your conviction to "free speech", than maybe it is more your problem than it is theirs. When all is said and done and the con job you have helped to pull on people is dragged out into the light and seen for what it is, and the blood money from Daniel Faulkner is all spent up, I hope you come clean with yourself and especially those whom you damn well know you have misled.

Mumia did it.

Interject all your pseudo-intellectualism and platitudes, but all you have done is further obscured the truth.

If you have a problem with racism in this country and the death penalty, than I am all with you in condemning it, but when you hook up with, give a platform to, and lend credibility to entities like MOVE, than you are beneath contempt and deserve nothing else.

-Tony

Perhaps Francome is off counting his coins made off exploiting the murder of Officer Faulkner and deifying his killer with the aid of brilliant legal minds like Snoop Dogg to bother to respond.
Really though, I don’t care. The fact remains that he is apparently a whore for cheap applause, keeps company with self-appointed censors, and is friends with the child-raping, death-cult of MOVE.

He won’t answer the questions I sent him because he can’t answer the questions I sent him. The best he can do is try and play the nice guy route and try and traverse the proverbial high road.

This, after spending the time in the gutter of cultism and blind faith of the Mumiaphiles is probably the best he can do.

Dispatch From MOVE World And Censored By “In Prison My Whole Life” Actor

(William Francome with Ramona Africa)

Frequently, I come across some rather sad and false statements pertaining to either MOVE or Mumia. Generally speaking, I don’t respond to these examples of ignorance, but occasionally I do leave comments. For the most part, I don’t re-post these quasi "debates" on this site. However, it did occur to me that if one person is posting fallacious information about either MOVE or Mumia, that there are likely others who believe the same thing.

Here is one example from what amounts to being the de-facto website of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia, the Philly IMC. A commentator calling himself "Wathchdog" wrote the following in response to the article about MOVE’s treatment of African Americans, their comments are in italics:

Also, I have yet another incidence of censorship by those supportive of Mumia. Even I was kind of surprised by this one. It is none other than recent Sundance Film Festival contributor, and "star" of the "documentary" about Mumia, titled "In Prison My Whole Life". Just the latest example of how when faced with facts, Jamal supporters resort to the tactics of those they claim to oppose.

A Dispatch From "MOVE World"

Who is the threat? Feb 4, 6:38PM

I might be good to keep in mind that MOVE hasn't killed or caused the death of anyone...unless one accepts the sickening idea of "suicide by cop". However the entities that MOVE condemns, rejects and actively opposes have killed hundreds locally, and millions elsewhere...not to mention the beatings, injuries, torture, industrial poisonings, environmental pollution, wildlife extinctions, frauds, frame-ups, rights deprivations, and on and on and on. If I had to select a babysitter for my kids, the choice would be easier than easy...not even a question. MOVE isn't about hating People...but about rejecting and opposing what the homicidal establisment perpetrators of so many atrocities

DO. Note the difference.

Compare that to the rhetoric of "antimove". Watchdog>

MOVE coupled with ignorance is a threatFeb 4, 11:58PM

It is horribly disingenuous to take the position that "MOVE hasn’t killed or caused the death of anyone...unless one accepts the sickening idea of "suicide by cop". My stance on the "suicide by cop" is my conclusion of studying all available materials with regards to the tragedy of May 13th 1985.. The idea may indeed be "sickening", but I would invite you to offer a counter position, based upon facts, that explains the actions of John Africa and his devotees on that day and prior to it.

"Organic mediators", as the were called, who were not police of government officials begged and pleaded with MOVE members as it became clear that the confrontation John Africa had been preparing for over the past two years. If you read any of the books about the confrontation or the MOVE commission hearings, it is clear that the MOVE members were resigned to the idea that they would die in the coming days. During this time, MOVE members, even the ones facing charges were facing minor charges, could have very easily turned themselves in and with the exception of Frank Africa, who was wanted for a parole violation could have been arrested and been back home by the end of the day.

However, MOVE members in that house, being led by John Africa had clearly been preparing themselves and the home they stole from a former member for war. Two fortified bunkers, masked MOVE members running around housetops with weapons, threats of violence, including a promise to blow up the neighborhood, and a letter sent to city hall with a promise to kill the mayor are not the actions of a person with a regard for their own life or the lives of others. Another point, seldom made, is that with the exception of one child, all of the children in the Osage Avenue house were the children of imprisoned MOVE members. Essentially children who had nobody to speak for them or remove them from what was to be the center of a violent confrontation, initiated by MOVE.

This, when there were several other MOVE properties in and around Philadelphia for them to go. Placing the children in that house, at that point, displayed MOVE’s and particularly John Africa’s disregard for life. MOVE did not give those children a chance. Do you actually think that those kids wanted to be in what the adults knew when they opened fire on police and refused to leave the house or let the kids go would be a gunfight that MOVE could not possibly win. One can argue in principle that MOVE was acting in defense of self or out of principal. However, my view of self-defense does not include shooting at hundred of heavily armed police when you have a house of children with you. When you could have brought those children out, when they didn’t have to be there in the first place, etc...It was not self-defense, it was suicide and the murder of children.

To be sure, the police should have treated the children like the literal hostages that they were and I have said as much on numerous occasions. I believe this to the point that there should have been a few people from the city in a jail cell with Ramona. But, at the end of the day, MOVE members were ultimately responsible for their actions. That an Organization ostensibly dedicated to protecting life, it should raise eyebrows that it is surrounded in death. And while the above is my opinion based upon the wealth of information I obtained while in MOVE and since being out, the fact that MOVE members are in jail for the attempted murder of several police officers and firefighters and for the murder of James Ramp is not in dispute.

You may be taken in by MOVE’s conspiracy theories regarding the death of Ramp, but what they do not explain is how so many other firefighters and police officers were wounded. All by "friendly fire" to "frame" MOVE? It is absurd to think such a thing in the face of facts. The very same police and fireman who were hit by gunfire from MOVE knew where the shots were coming from as they had observed MOVE members in the basement with weapons. And when the firing started, the police and firefighters are on tape retreating from the area around the MOVE house after being struck by gunfire. The bullet that killed James Ramp was conclusively linked to a weapon purchased by a MOVE member. A number of witnesses heard and observed the gunfire and saw Ramp be shot down as he raced to assist another officer whom MOVE had shot down.

The ballistics evidence presented at trial completely repudiates the "ballistics evidence" MOVE tries to peddle to the public. And during the Osage Avenue confrontation MOVE boldly pronounced that they would do to those cops what they would do to James Ramp. That is just some of the evidence against MOVE. And if you are for the idea that "9 people should not be in jail for the murder of one man with one gun", I will not denounce you for being absurd. What I will say is that it is absurd to say that nobody in MOVE is responsible for killing James Ramp and the attempted murder of the other people on that day.

The same can be said for the tearing down of the house. Although I can understand the city not wanting it to become some kind of symbol or at the worst, leaving it to be re-occupied by MOVE, but I do wish it hadn’t been done as it has provided fodder for people not fully acquainted with the case to assume the worst.

Aside from James Ramp, and if you want to include murders by MOVE supporters, Daniel Faulkner, there is also anecdotal evidence concerning the deaths of others in MOVE’s orbit. After Osage Avenue, a former member of the sect came forward to make the claim that infants in the group had died of "unknown" causes as these children were disallowed from being taken to the hospital for treatment if they fell ill. She would further claim that MOVE used the deaths of these children for propaganda purposes by claiming they were killed as a result of attacks by police. Neither MOVE’s story nor the allegation can be confirmed given the fact that they refused to allow an autopsy on one particular child that they claimed was murdered in a police confrontation. This refusal to allow a deceased child to be examined out of MOVE’s anti-technology beliefs is the very same MOVE that, thru the use of racial eugenics, via in vitro-fertilization, allowed MOVE’s leader, Alberta Africa, a "white child".

And than there is John Gilbride. A man killed in the midst of a custody dispute with MOVE, before a visit that MOVE promised he would never had, after his life had been threatened by MOVE, and with authorities having ruled out all of the conspiracy theories tossed out by MOVE, the investigation is now focused in the most obvious direction, and it is my belief that justice for John will end with the arrest and conviction of someone connected to MOVE. Finally, it is a logical fallacy of grandiose proportion and certainly an argument "from the bottom" to point at the fictional monolith and come to some warped conclusion that MOVE would be a good "babysitter". I don’t think that I have ever come across such a weak argument as the one "watchdog" employs at the end of his/her comment.

So because there are bad things and bad people in the world, therefore MOVE should get a pass for all of the things they have done? Could it not be possible that yes there are corrupt cops etc...and that MOVE could also be an explicitly authoritarian cult?

Watchdog ought to keep in mind that whatever their purported "radical" credentials are, that unless they are a MOVE member or a close supporter, the group still considers them and everyone else not of MOVE, "the system".

Tony Allen

"Censored" By Another Jamal Supporter

Another issue of interest is the fact that my words have been banned from yet another website. This time, from the myspace page of William Francome, who is the "star" of the decidedly pro-Mumia film, "In Prison My Whole Life".

The irony of course is that I am sure Francome finds the idea of censorship of Mumia to be a travesty of justice, but has no trouble working to silence somebody whose only crime is that of speaking their mind. It is ok for a death-row murderer to say what they want, but not ok for someone who has never been convicted of any crime.

The true character of Francome and company remains not in their words about "freedom" and "justice", but in their practice of censorship of critics and unwillingness to defend the integrity of the work they produce.

Much like Mumia, they are cowards and I am glad that Francome and company have helped to make my point that much more clear.

Francome’s myspace page from where I was censored from can be seen at

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=163895959

What I find funny is that Francome deleted my post, but kept one referencing my post by pro-Mumia "author", Michael Schiffman who accuses me of not knowing what an "argument" is.
Maybe not, but I can defend my position without regarding to censorious tactics.

MOVE's Worst Enemy

JOHN AFRICA DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE

(This article was first written by me and was published at hiphoprepublican.com. It appears here slightly edited)

"Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law." -James Baldwin

Sign the petition to keep MOVE members in prison
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-parole-for-the-move-9.html

Recently, I came upon a statement by Martin Luther King III written in support of MOVE and delivered some years back by the "civil rights leader", Martin Luther King III.
I had to wonder though, and with all due respect to the son of one of the finest human beings this world produced, just how much time and effort Mr, King had put into actually researching MOVE’s case. Given the veracity of the comments, I am guessing not much. But that is not what has prompted me to write this article.

Thinking of King, both he and his father, caused me to reflect upon some comments made to me by MOVE members regarding just who they perceive would be the cult’s worst enemy, and it is not who you would think.

Given MOVE’s history with law enforcement, you would think that the cops would be perceived by the group as their obvious choice as public enemy number one. And while MOVE certainly has no love for anyone with a badge, you would be wrong to think that MOVE considers them to be the worst of the worst.

That honor is bestowed upon upwardly mobile African-Americans or even those in the middle class.

I readily admit that I was taken aback by this kind or revelation that I had heard after being involved with MOVE for a number of years, and occured in a conversation with long-time, white MOVE member, Sue Africa. She would tell me that this group of people were not only MOVE's greatest enemy, but the biggest threat to "John Africa's Revolution".

Apparently sensing my confusion, Sue went on to to tell me that John Africa had explained to MOVE members, that because so many blacks were set upon the goal of gaining acceptance into society, and were increasingly gaining access to higher education, that these factors would keep these African-Americans from being able to accept the ideology as espoused by MOVE. This ideology essentially dismissed education except with regards to learning very physical occupations such as home repair, landscaping, etc..And while I don’t diminish the value of these jobs, I do have to take issue with children being raised in a world where these jobs are their only options, regardless of their personal interest. This is certainly the case with MOVE.

Sue’s premise essentially boiled down to her thinking that blacks would be so enamored by the allure of the "system", that they would not realize they were chasing down a broken American dream that would turn out to be a nightmare. As the wave of Black Power politics broke and retreated, or was co-opted into the "system", most blacks would not accept MOVE's anti-systematic ideology.

On the other hand, she claimed that there was an un-tapped reservoir of discontent amongst young white people, who had been raised with all of the trappings of "the system" and were anxious to turn their back upon it and be led out of the darkness of their angst, into the solution that are the teachings of John Africa, or that is her story anyways.

It is with an eye towards the future of an Organization that is increasingly white, that Alberta Africa, MOVE’s leader, used in-vitro fertilization in order to ensure a child with very Caucasian features. She denies it of course, but if you see the child his race is beyond question. It is on him that MOVE’s future is set to rest upon. Unlike the other children in MOVE he is being educated, allowed to socialize with non-MOVE members, raised not in the filthy environment of traditional MOVE homes, but in an up-scale home in Cherry Hill New Jersey, a suburb that is over 80% white and barely 5% black.

That is where he gets to live, play, go to ballet class, etc.. while other children of MOVE live off food stamps, cramped houses, commit welfare fraud to get by, and live the violent city of Philadelphia, a world away from that which Alberta’s project/child inhabits.

He is being raised and groomed to not only lead MOVE, but also to recruit the white youth that are to be the future of "John Africa's" revolution. And not just poor whites, but well-to-do ones and especially people from Europe, where the mythology of MOVE runs largely un-challenged.
Of course Alberta’s child is not just hers. If you are even a casual reader of my site, you know his father was murdered as he sought to extract his child from this life of cult programming. This child is not just a son for Alberta, he is the embodiment of MOVE’s future. From the vantage point of MOVE, it is easy to see how easy it must have been for the cult’s members to kill if they thought the future of the Organization was in jeopardy. And indeed it would have been if John Gilbride had the access to his child that the courts were beginning to grant him.

While MOVE raises their modern day savior, I am struck by just how Sue Africa’s explanation of blacks as being MOVE's number one enemy is confirmed by history. A look at the cult’s actions shows that most of MOVE's victims are in fact, black.

In the 70's when MOVE became organized, the group was mostly black with a few white members and hangers on. Interestingly enough, at that point, the cult appeared to be an equal opportunity hater, targeting those who got in their way without regards to race. At the time, the sect was still idealistic enough to preach their utopian vision of all races living in harmony and aside from the black policemen who had the misfortune of being within view of MOVE members, the hatred seemed to be spread around somewhat evenly.

It was not till MOVE members took up residence on Osage Avenue that blacks began to bear the brunt of MOVE "heat" as the group called it when they attacked people physically or via megaphone. The residents of Osage Avenue, nearly all black working class residents, were by all reports, a proud lot, and who raised no protest when in the early 1980's MOVE members moved into the neighborhood, and into the whom of Louise James. James, was John Africa’s sister and one of the first devotees of the cult. Her son Frank was revered by the group as the next best thing to John Africa himself. Having been virtually raised by John Africa, he was the example for MOVE members to follow. They are actually proud of the fact that he was such an emotional cripple that he could not go to the store without calling to talk to his uncle/guru/living god.

The real problems began on Osage, when in 1983, MOVE members beat up a couple of neighbors on two different occasions., one of whom by three MOVE women who bit their male victim in the groin and had to be taken to the hospital. Complaints about the attacks and other issues regarding MOVE such as the rats, garbage, too many cats and dogs, and the ever-present bug problem these issues brought with them were ignored by city officials. The neighbors were urged to stay vigilant and not make too much noise till Wilson Goode was elected Mayor. The thinking apparently was that a black mayor would be able to handle the mostly black cult, or so they thought.

As the time passed, things only got worse for the African-Americans on Osage Avenue. In December of that year neighbors were shocked to see Louise James being chased down the street by her own son, an axe in his hand. James had abandoned her home to MOVE by this time, but not before she was allegedly beaten, again by her son, in the presence of John Africa himself. He allegedly asked his Uncle if he wanted his own mother to be killed, with the latter responding "not at this time". Driven by her fear for her son and herself, James did the unthinkable and the unforgivable and went to the police.

Christmas brought only more misery to the people of Osage Avenue as MOVE gave as a gift to their neighbors profanity via a bullhorn.

In the spring, a hooded MOVE member armed with a shotgun was menacing his neighbors from the rooftops. The police came and went and no arrests were made. Black politicos met with the police about the situation and nothing came of it. In May, MOVE spent two weeks straight on their bullhorn virtually 24 hours a day. They denounced the neighbors, city officials, the mayor, and of course Judges. When neighbors complained directly to MOVE, they were told by cult members that "John Africa told us not to respect your rights".

From MOVE’s perspective, they were going to put pressure on their neighbors, who would in turn pressure the city, and the end result would be MOVE members being released from jail. In a very real way, MOVE’s neighbors were essentially hostages in their own home. Who, after all, would be able to sell a house in a neighborhood where one of the row-homes sat, boarded up, a bunker on the roof, with the ever-present smell of dogshit wafting thru the air.

At this point, the neighbors were able to get an audience with the mayor who did not impress or effect change. MOVE, for their part, went on with their buisness of terroizing those around them.
It should be noted that at this point there had been a paradigm shift in Philadelphia’s political structure. When MOVE came into prominence, they did so in the era of Frank Rizzo. A white, former top cop, with a penchant for crass comments, and little sympathy for minorities, MOVE garnered support amongst many blacks and "progressive" whites who loathed Rizzo, even more than they did not understand MOVE.

With the arrival of Mayor Goode and a host of other black politicians, MOVE found itself with no bogey men to go after. But it wouldn’t be long before MOVE had a new enemy, whom they gave a new name. The city of Philadelphia's first black Mayor, was called "Nigger Willy" by MOVE.
As the faces on city hall changed from white to black, the situation on Osage Avenue was becoming un-sustainable, with one city agency trying to drop the ball on another as the nightmare on Osage Avenue became a burecratic game of "hot potatoe".

At this point, MOVE had attacked it’s own neighbors, threatened with death just about everyone from the President, The Mayor, down to the cops on the street. They had menaced people with a gun, had set up a gas-powered bull horn to torture those around them at all hours of the night. Frank Africa, wanted for parole violation, was known to be at the home, had been able to brutally beat his own mother and the group would not even allow city workers to get close enough to read their meter. And all Mayor Goode had to say through a spokeswoman, was that nothing could be done until "MOVE persons break a law". Of course, he knew that MOVE had broken dozens of laws and were currently harboring one parole violator, but nothing was done.
While all of this was occurring, MOVE was continuing to fortify the home they had hijacked from it’ owner, Louise James, who out of fear, had been driven to go the police and bet that they do something to, at the very least get her son out of the house. She was convinced that her brother, John Africa, had gone insane with power and was set upon a course that would lead to the deaths of everyone in what used to be her home. A home that had been transforme into a fortified fortress by zealous cult members.

One thing that is striking with regards to MOVE’s behavior towards their fellow African-Americans is the level of hostility directed towards the latter. Whether MOVE was angry that the new black leadership in Philadelphia did not aid them in their endeavors or at their neighbors refusal to endorse or accept MOVE’s ideology, MOVE exhibited a palpable hatred of the blacks around them and politicans . What is also striking is how MOVE, ostensibly revolutionary and an opponent of racism, so readily embraced the terminology of white supremacy and treated their fellow blacks not only as second class citizens, but not even as citizens at all. As John Africa had instructed them, MOVE members were to regard their neighbors as people with no rights. It was yet another echo of America’s racist past and sounds very much like the Supreme Court ruling in 1856 that declared"... that (African Americans) they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect".

Or in this instance, no rights which MOVE was bound to respect with regards to their black neighbors

Everyone knows that the confrontation on Osage Avenue ended in death and destruction. That John Africa had not only sought to destroy himself and his fellow cultists, but also the lives of his black neighbors. In a letter sent to the Mayor just days before the "confrontation", MOVE made it clear what would happen if the Police attempted to move in on the now fortified house "If MOVE go down...everybody in this block go down...we going to burn them with smoke, gas, fire, and bullets...We will burn this house down and burn you up with us."

Thankfully, the neighborhood was evacuated before the police took any action against MOVE. The city had finally had enough and went to serve warrants on a number of MOVE members in the house. Police Officers gathering around the MOVE compound in order to serve warrants got a taste of what the neighborhood had been enduring for the past three years as the following message was sent to them via bullhorn. Officers were told that after the "white cop was killed" by MOVE, that "the white cop’s wife would get a nigger, and this nigger would fuck his wife and daughter and get the white cop’s money".

Once the Police were in position, the warrants were read over a bullhorn to the MOVE members inside the house as well as a plea and a promise that if MOVE members surrendered that no harm would come to anyone that day. But, John Africa had been itching for a fight and had constructed two bunkers, one inside the house and one on top, complete with firing ports. He had no intention of surrendering and MOVE responded to the Police and clearly intended his barricades to be much more than agit-rop.

Most people agree that MOVE fired first, with Police responding in kind and the conflict went on all day long with periods of eerie calm, during which the Police and others begged MOVE to come out, who remained in the house.

Remotely controlled fire squirts were turned onto the house in a vain effort to flood MOVE members out and a "bomb" was dropped on top of the bunker on the roof in order to "neutralize" the fortification as a threat. In an act of unconscionable, stupid, brutality, authorities allowed the fire to burn as a "tactical weapon". It burned and burned and eventually the fire hoses which had been stopped to let the fire do it’s work were turned back on. But by now, it was too late. The fire was out of control, and it was at this time that some of the MOVE members, in the midst of fire, smoke, and the coming darkness decided they had enough and wanted to leave the tomb they had built for themselves.

It is believed that at this point, John Africa was already dead or was effectively cut off from those abandoning the house. Police reported that MOVE members were indeed leaving, but that at least one of the male MOVE members left the house firing with the police returning fire. No one can say for sure what happened in that chaos, but at the end of it, only Ramona Africa and a child named Birdie would escape the smoke, fire, and bullets as 11 others in MOVE were not so lucky. As for the neighborhood, 61 homes were lost in the inferno. The police escaped without any fatalities, their bullet proof vests not penetrated by the shotguns and small caliber weapons used by MOVE members.

For her part, Ramona Africa, who has perpetuated the myth around the world, that the police had come to "MOVE’s house" to kill "every man woman and child" who were in that house. She fails to mention the repeated attempts by Officers and others to get them to come out peaceably. Nor does she admit how she survived, attributing it only to the "power of John Africa". The truth however, repudiates her own story of the police bloodlust, as well as the purported mythical prowess of John Africa, who had been the architect of so much destruction that day. It wasn’t John Africa that saved her and Birdy’s life, it was the police.

Had the police been out there to "kill" all of the MOVE members as she claims, she would be six feet under as opposed to traveling the world capitalizing on her life as a perpetual victim and a kind of revisonist historian.

The Police report that they observed Ramona and Birdy approaching their position confused and staggering about. Ramona was heard saying "don’t shoot, we’ve had enough"at which point she was taken to an awaiting Police van and taken to the hospital to be treated for the burns that covered her arms and legs. Birdie had fallen face first into a pool of debris filled water.
Officer Berghaier, positioned nearby, and in spite of his fears of MOVE members still prowling around the area and said to be armed armed, scrambled to where Birdie had fallen and managed to drag him to safety. His last words to the little boy he saved was "It’s all over son, take care." And that is what Birdie has done. Having survived John Africa’s ploy to destroy himself and everything around him, his mother among the dead, was raised by his father who was never a part of MOVE and has grown up free from the cult which almost killed him.
MOVE, due to it’s involvement in the fight to "Free Mumia", the cult’s most well known supporter, still lumbers onward. It is a group that now has more white faces in it’s midst than black, yet it’s rhetoric is still drenched in identity politics as the group, instead of fighting to rid the world of racism, embraces it and uses the specter of bigotry to slander it’s opponents. They have tried to make support for themselves and for Mumia a kind of racial litmus test, even as the group itself abuses the mostly African-American children who have the misfortune of being born into the cult.
It is a group that has a policy of forced ignorance with regard to children. Knowing that the more ignorant one is, the more easily controlled they are, MOVE keep’s the children in the cult’s midst largely illiterate and the young girls forced to become breeding machines once they reach puberty. It is a scene far more similar to a southern slave plantation much more so than Philadelphia in 2008.

MOVE members still cross the globe preaching their gospel of hatred and white guilt to it’s mostly young, mostly white audiences, who are largely unaware the group’s real history and who eat up the group’s tales of oppression by the "system" of "white supremacy" and "capitalism".
And while MOVE may embrace bourgeois blacks to their face, there is a thinly veiled contempt in the group for African-Americans who have succeeded and thrived in the very "system" that the cult seeks to destroy. This contempt does not end with MOVE’s black members and supporters. White adherents of the cult are imbued with a sense of superiority to blacks who are not in MOVE. And it is not just successful blacks that MOVE has a problem with, it is also African Americans who embrace African culture beyond what MOVE believes is appropriate. MOVE members and supporters call those with an with extreme affinity to the continent from which their ancestors where stolen from, and who reflect that reverence with African style clothing, ways of thinking, and cultural expressions "ooga boogas".

This sense of superiority is not surprising coming from a group that hates everything not embraced by their leaders or John Africa. And if you ever want to see a MOVE member angry, bring up the fact that the word "Africa" is a European word imposed upon a continent of many nations in the age of colonialism.

While MOVE stays anchored in the past through their cultish, group-think, their teachings are becoming increasingly irrelevant as the doors that were closed to African-Americans in the past are broken down, as the "glass ceilings" that kept blacks in a perpetual state of second class citizenship are shattered, racism is becoming increasingly irrelevant. These cultural changes for the better are reflected also in the world of science as advances in genome studies are effectively discrediting the whole idea of "race" as a means of dividing human beings.

For MOVE, these steps forward with regard to "race", further illustrate the group’s impotence.
So while the rest of the world goes forward, as a black man stands as a true contender to become President, not because of the color of his skin, but because of the content of his character, we come ever closer that day when Martin Luther King’s dream becomes reality. We have seen the rise, although not the triumph of "post-racial politics", of the type that will leave the racists, addicts to the opiate of identity politics, and those groups like MOVE, which use all those aforementioned issues and include with it the cynical cult of victimization as a means to a financial end.

All the while, MOVE exists in it’s perpetually backward state, crushing the minds of the youth in their midst, while the group’s mostly white support structure unwittingly serve as enablers to a cult that does not seek to eradicate bigotry, but thrives on it. And similar to hate groups, needs it for it’s very survival.

And while the walls that separate us as people crumble, so to do groups like MOVE which do so much to pull people apart in the guise of bringing them together.

Sign the petition to keep MOVE members in prisonhttp://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-parole-for-the-move-9.html