'Apology Without Action Is Meaningless': West Philadelphia Protest Commemorates 1985 MOVE Bombing Victims
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Activists gathered to protest police brutality while also remembering the MOVE bombing in West Philadelphia on Saturday. Chopper 3 flew over West Philly, where a large group gathered.
The group met in the area of 62nd and Osage Avenue, the location of the former MOVE house.
On May 13, 1985, after a day-long standoff outside a home occupied by members of a radical, back-to-nature group known as MOVE, where police dropped an explosive device on their rowhome.
It was believed that the MOVE members had an armed bunker on the roof of the rowhome. The dropping of the explosive device was meant to dislodge it. Eleven people -- including six adults and five children -- were killed. The fire, triggered by the explosive device, destroyed 62 homes.
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Activists said Saturday that police violence in 2020 has strong parallels to that day in 1985.
"Apology without action is meaningless. Don't apologize to me if you're going to keep doing the things to me that you've been doing," MOVE member Mike Africa Jr. said. "Apology without action is meaningless, don't take down the [Frank] Rizzo statue, but don't allow the synthesis to stand."
Activists also called for the release of Mumia Abu Jamal, who is in jail after he was convicted for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
The group later marched on 52nd Street through West Philadelphia.
