Let the Fire Burn

On May 13, 1985 there was a long standoff between Philadelphia police and MOVE members, a group formed by a man who went by the name of John Africa. The standoff ended with the police dropping C4 onto the roof of their townhouse at 6221 Osage Ave. A fire resulted which killed eleven people, five of whom were children. That same fire would go unchecked and burn down sixty homes in total. There were two survivors: twelve-year-old Michael Moses Ward and Ramona Africa. It was a sad day for the city of Philadelphia no matter how you view it: urban warfare, eleven lives lost, three city blocks burned to the ground. That's nothing to be proud of.

"Let the Fire Burn" is a documentary covering the standoff between MOVE and the police. It's also a statement made by the mayor at the time, Mayor Wilson Goode, when he said, "There was a decision to let the fire burn."

MOVE had had a standoff before in 1978 when a police officer was killed. They were a small cult/organization that attracted attention more with their behavior than their beliefs. By pretty much being bad neighbors they had the police called on them time and time again. May 13th was the actions of the city after many neighborhood complaints.

The question is, were the police too aggressive, reckless, and negligent in trying to extract the MOVE members? I think we can say yes to that. We saw a similar scenario play out in Waco, Texas about eight years later. The documentary mostly covers the testimonies of police, fire, neighbors, and surviving MOVE members. In there as well is news footage from the May 12th - 13th siege as well as the 1978 raid. Whether this was a case of mistakes being made or a group hell bent on a police showdown it's hard to say. What's not hard to say is that a lot of innocent people lost their homes as a result, and that my be the real tragedy.

$3.99 on Apple TV.