Delbert Africa, one of the MOVE 9 who was freed in 2020, died just months after his release, likely due to being denied proper cancer treatment while incarcerated.
Move bombing trial#
9 MOVE members were sentenced in a politically-charged trial for the death of an officer who died in the 1978 confrontation evidence suggests the officer died due to friendly fire from other police.Īfter years of imprisonment and medical neglect, 7 of the MOVE 9 have been released (two of them -Merle Africa and Phil Africa -died in prison).
On August 8, 1978, an earlier confrontation took place at MOVE’s then-headquarters in the Philly neighborhood of Powelton Village.
Move bombing series#
After a series of extreme police brutality incidents against MOVE members by Philly Police, the group found itself increasingly drawn into confrontations with Philly’s notoriously racist law enforcement apparatus under then-Mayor Frank Rizzo. "I think it's to intimidate and scare people who have been involved in the reporting, and I don't think it has merit," Muhammad told Axios of Monge's lawsuit.Įditor's note: Axios Philadelphia reporter Taylor Allen has previously worked at WHYY.In the 1970s, MOVE advocated for the rights of animals and the environment, in accordance with the teachings of their founder and leader John Africa.Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, who wrote the Inquirer story, told Axios the media reports, including their own, were not mischaracterized and that their source was not Mitchell.Thomas didn't return Axios' request for comment. Kassutto, the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY (the entity that owns Billy Penn) and Penn Museum declined to comment.Monge's complaint are substantially and demonstrably false."
The response: Mitchell said in a statement to Axios, "claims, including those about me, which form the basis of Dr. Kassutto previously worked at Penn Museum and was an intern in the physical anthropology section.Monge's lawyer, Alan Epstein, declined to comment further, saying "the complaint speaks for itself."Ĭontext: Both Billy Penn and the Philadelphia Inquirer broke the story on the same day last spring.Monge also claims Mitchell falsified information to his "then-girlfriend" Maya Kassutto, who wrote one of the initial reports for Billy Penn before the story was picked up by multiple local and national outlets.Photo: Bettman/Getty Images Former Penn Museum curator-in-charge Janet Monge is suing the University of Pennsylvania, various media outlets, the Association of Black Anthropologists and the Society of Black Archaeologists over 'false' and 'defamatory' reports of her alleged mishandling of a 1985 MOVE. She alleges that "defamatory" media reports were initiated by her former colleagues, University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate Paul Mitchell and anthropology professor Deborah Thomas, in part in retaliation for Monge reporting Mitchell for "unprofessional conduct." The 1985 MOVE bombing in West Philadelphia.What she's saying: In the complaint, Monge alleges she spent 36 years trying to identify the bone fragments of the remains. The group wrote that Monge and Mann did not "violate any professional, ethical or legal standards," but "demonstrated at a minimum, poor judgment and insensitivity.".The order was never carried out.īetween the lines: A Tucker Law group report examined how the remains from the 1985 bombing resulted in Penn's custody and were used in a 2019 online course. Last May, the city revealed its discovery that in 2017, former Philadelphia health commissioner Thomas Farley ordered a separate set of MOVE bombing victims' remains to be cremated without notifying family members.
He wasn't able to, but the remains weren't returned to the city.