Word: philadelphia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...explanations. Sambor told reporters he did not recall who first suggested using explosives to demolish the roof bunker, though he added that Lieut. Powell of the bomb-disposal unit "came up with the recommendation" that they "create" the kind of device that was later dropped by Powell < himself. The Philadelphia Inquirer published an impressively detailed report that for at least 18 months the police had been working up contingency assault plans and studying the Move bunker in photographic blowups. For weeks and possibly months, the paper said, police had been secretly testing various explosives, including Du Pont's Tovex...
...miscellany of discrepancies, plus the fact that the police consulted no outside experts on crucial questions, was enough to suggest, if nothing else, haphazard decision-making. The issue of the timing was something else again. Law-enforcement specialists elsewhere almost unanimously raised one question: Why did the Philadelphia police move so hurriedly to extreme measures against the cultists? Why not wait, talk and starve them out, which is the standard procedure in such situations...
...Philadelphia authorities say they considered a number of alternative strategies without hitting on a workable one. A crane with a wrecking ball was rejected because there was no way to get the machine in position without putting the operator in the line of fire. The police department's vintage armored personnel carrier was thought to be vulnerable to armor-piercing slugs, which police said were being fired from the house. Delay, Sambor said, would have increased the chance that Move would place explosives in tunnels they claimed to have dug and "blow the block." (This reason looked a bit hollow...
...have fired weapons at the police, simply vanished. Police first said they fired back; then they denied it. By week's end authorities had identified two of the bodies recovered from inside the house: Frank James Africa, 26, and Rhoda Harris War Africa, 30, mother of Birdie. The Philadelphia Daily News, citing unnamed police sources, insisted throughout the week that three Move members had been killed outside the house by police gunfire...
...face of furious criticism and ridicule, Philadelphia proved through the week that it has a thick skin. It showed, as well, remarkable powers of recuperation. The community rallied with a dramatic outpouring of spirit and resources for the fire victims. Food and clothing by the ton poured into churches and collection centers. Department stores handed out vouchers that amounted to gift certificates. Supermarkets, restaurants and private citizens came forth with everything from fried chicken to pizza. One anonymous donor sent $100,000 to St. Carthage Church for its homeless "to rekindle their hopes." Developers were already drawing up plans...