Comment on May 13, 1985
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months agoDevil’s Advocacy, read at your own risk:
According to the police, they evacuated the civilians from the area and engaged in a gunfight with the compound which housed known terrorists called MOVE, an anti-government and anti-technology religious organization whose members were all black and changed their last names to Africa as a form of symbolism who had years earlier killed a police officer leading to a lifelong conviction for 9 of it’s members.
The terrorists were armed with automatic weapons and a gas generator on the roof of the compound. After the 2 small bombs opened a hole on the roof and took out the generator, the terrorists supposedly even shot at firefighters who approached the scene which allowed the fire to spread. 61 home burnt with Six adults and five children as fatalities.
My take: The police should not have automatic anti-tank rifles or C4 Satchel Bombs. They should never have attempted to preemptively remove MOVE members from any residence, regardless of the status of their parole. This is not the job for people with less training than the people who cut hair for a living.
But also, I’m certainly not on MOVE’s side in this situation. Those morons fucked around and found out.
Railing5132@lemmy.world 6 months ago
*terrorists as labeled by the fucking mayor…
We got goddamned Vote Quimby down here deciding who’s a terrorist because they got warrants, trash, and a bullhorn being a public nuisance.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
I see a cult with a fortified compound and armed soldiers, with multiple missed paroles and a history of armed violence going back over a decade. If they’re not terrorist then what the fuck are they?
They are also victims, none of the things that occurred on May 13th should have ever happened with competent and respectful leadership and negotiation perhaps by the FBI or actual service members, but being a victim doesn’t erase every stupid indecent thing have ever done.
Nevoic@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Terrorist is just a loaded word. Like Hamas is a “terrorist organization” but the state of Israel isn’t.
Terrorism often boils down to “enacting violence against systems of oppression”. Is the IDF a terrorist organization? What about the DoD? These organizations use violence to perpetuate existing systems of oppression, causing vastly more harm than any domestic “terrorist” organization ever will.
While these 11 people were being killed by the state for being “terrorists”, the CIA was backing fascists (contras) to overthrow democratically elected socialists in Nicaragua. Is the CIA a terrorist organization?
Madison420@lemmy.world 6 months ago
No man they literally threatened to bomb other countries for shit happening in the us, that’s everyone’s definition of terrorism.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
That’s whataboutism, multiple wrongs don’t make a right and none of MOVE’s actions are forgiven by this argument.
TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Oppressed groups have an internationally recognized right to resist.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
This was 1985. If they were discriminated against then they could have settled it in the courts, not by forming a cult and fortifying a compound.
SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 6 months ago
Sounds awfully familiar.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Thank goodness it wasn’t the same scale as that event, but at least the FBI attempted to negotiate and staved off a full offensive until 51 days had passed. If the Philadelphia police had shown that kind of respect and restraint then things might have ended a lot differently for the MOVE members.
Godric@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Idk, I’m several drinks in atm, but you’d make big money picking cherries.
Warrants for making terroristic threats, illegal possession of firearms, parole violations, contempt of court
And automatic weapons. You used the … to erase the automatic weapons part.
-what the actual fucking fuck did the Keystone Kops think would happen if they dropped explosives on the gas generator in hopes of “taking out the “rooftop bunker”” which was most likely the goddamned rooftop access. They had to know. And if the didn’t, they were criminally stupid.
Wow, not knowing where people store their generators is the bar for criminal stupidity? I have a different bar
Ah yes, story we hear every week outta murica, them white folks, shooting their automatic assault rifles at the cops and getting away with it
/s
Seriously, if you start a business picking cherries, I’d like to invest, I haven’t seen anyone so skilled since 2020
Railing5132@lemmy.world 6 months ago
A bit boozy myself, so here goes:
B) you called out the gas generator like it was some Lclandestine munition.
Godric@lemmy.world 6 months ago
B) Not sure what a generator has to do with Lclandestine munitions, or what those are
ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
I’m not saying it’s the same but the Bundy standoff comes to mind as a recent example where a buncha good ol’ white boys barricaded themselves in a compound, and they weren’t bombed. They didn’t fire upon cops but they did imply that they were ready to if they were raided.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Everybody is in agreement that the cops grossly mishandled the situation on May 13th 1985, and it serves as a great argument for the demilitarization of police in the USA. The problem is some people in this forum want us to think this was a random unprompted massacre of ordinary people, which is pretty far off the mark.