Challenged at a press conference later that
week, Goode was unable to offer a straight answer: "If"someone called
on the telephone and said to me "We're going to drop a bomb on a house;'
would I approve that? The answer is no. What was said to me was that
they were going to use an explosive device to blow the bunker off the
top of the house."
Afterwards, Sambor continued to defend the
decision to drop the bomb by arguing that the bombing was "a
conservative and safe approach to what I perceived as a tactical
necessity."
The MOVE Commission concluded that
"dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable and should
have been rejected out of hand by the mayor, the managing director, the
police commissioner and the fire commissioner."
The Commission also reported that "in
January, 1985, an agent of the FBI delivered nearly 38 pounds of C-4, a
powerful military plastic explosive, to the Phila. Police bomb squad.
Delivery of this amount of C-4 to any police force without restrictions
as to its use is inappropriate. Neither agency kept any records of the
transaction. The FBI agent told the Commission that he "never had to
keep any kind of records or anything' regarding C-4. Nor did the bomb
squad keep any delivery, inventory or use of the C-4, or any other
explosives under their control"Because of the absence of record keeping
by the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department, all the facts of the
use of C-4 on May 13 may never be known."
"Fire As A Tactical Weapon"
Initially, the fire was relatively small,
but it was allowed to grow until it was eventually so large and powerful
that it burned down the entire city block.
According to Mayor Goode, he first learned
of the fire "at about ten minutes of six," at which point he contacted
Managing Director Brooks, and ordered that the fire be stopped. On
behalf of Goode, Brooks told Police Commissioner Sambor over the phone
to extinguish the fire, but upon discussing it, Sambor and Fire
Commissioner William Richmond decided to continue to let it burn. Richmond would later claim that Sambor did not tell Richmond about
Goode's order. However, Sambor denied this and said that he did indeed
tell Richmond
about Goode's order.
In defense of his decision, Richmond said
that he let the fire burn because of danger from alleged MOVE gunfire,
stating: "we regret what happened, but we are not going home with any
firefighters with bullet wounds tonight, and I thank God for that."
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
