re: #315 Backwoods_Sleuth

I lived a lot closer than you did. The City of Philadelphia and MOVE had a prior shootout a couple years earlier which resulted in the death of a police officer. I don’t know who shot first in the 1985 incident but I’m pretty sure the city was afraid they would have to storm the house. There were children there and MOVE members had said they wouldn’t be taken alive. Ultimately only one child was rescued. I think they had some sort of Branch Davidean death wish going on. As far as the bunker they built on the roof (which is where they dropped the bomb), I don’t know if it really had a line of sight to the street below. The Philly police dept wasn’t that far removed from the days of Frank Rizzo so that throws dome shade on their perspective. I think there is a lot more to the story than the police simply dropping a terror weapon.