The MOVE Bombing (1985) w/ Gene Demby
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s May 13th. This day in 1985, the Philadelphia police department ended a standoff with the MOVE group by dropping two firebombs from a helicopter on a rowhouse, which eventually led to an entire city block burning to the ground and 11 people being killed.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Philly native Gene Demby of NPR’s “Code Switch” podcast to discuss the incident and its aftermath.
Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Averkin. |
| 0:10.0 | This day, May 13, 1985, in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Police Department dropped two |
| 0:17.0 | one-pound bombs onto a road house in West Philadelphia where police had been in a standoff with members of Moo, a black liberation group. |
| 0:26.1 | The bombing of the Ro House quickly led to a fire which spread across two city blocks and |
| 0:31.0 | raged for a couple of hours before the fire department finally intervened. |
| 0:36.4 | In the end, five children and six adults were killed and 61 homes burned to the ground. |
| 0:43.0 | So here to discuss the move bombing are, as always, |
| 0:45.6 | Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. |
| 0:48.6 | Hello there. |
| 0:49.5 | Hey Jody. |
| 0:50.6 | Hey there. |
| 0:51.9 | And our special guest for this episode is Jean Dembe, co-host of NPR's |
| 0:55.8 | Code Switch Podcast, Philadelphia Native, and someone who has talked about and covered |
| 1:00.1 | the move bombing for a long time, someone we've been trying to get on the show for a long time or wanting to have on the show. |
| 1:05.6 | Seriously, you've been, we have this list of possible guests and your name has been on this since day one and I'm finally glad we got a chance to have you on. |
| 1:12.0 | I'm so I'm glad to be here. |
| 1:13.2 | Thank you for doing this. |
| 1:13.6 | And so we'll talk about the move bombing |
| 1:15.6 | and then we'll do like six to eight minutes |
| 1:17.2 | at the end on the Philadelphia 76ers |
| 1:19.6 | in the current season. |
... |
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