Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE

by Robin Wagner-Pacifici

In the early 1980s the radical group MOVE settled into a rowhouse in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of west Philadelphia, beginning years of confrontations with neighbors and police over its anti-establishment ways and militant stance against all social and political institutions. On May 13, 1985, following a period of increased MOVE activity and threats by neighbors to take matters into their own hands, the city moved from bureaucratic involvement to violent intervention. Police bullhorned arrest warrants, hosed down the rowhouse, sprayed tear gas through its walls, and dropped explosives from a helicopter. By the end of the day, eleven MOVE members were dead, an entire block of the neighborhood was destroyed, and Mayor Wilson Goode was calling for an investigation.

How did this struggle between the city and MOVE go from memos and meetings to tear gas and bombs? And how does the mandate to defend public order become a destructive force? Sifting through the hearings that followed the deadly encounter, Robin Wagner-Pacifici reconstructs the conflict between MOVE and the city of Philadelphia. Against this richly nuanced account, in which the participants—from the mayor and the police officers to members of MOVE and their neighbors—offer opposing versions of their aims, assumptions, and strategies, Wagner-Pacifici develops a compelling analysis of the relation between definition and action, between language and violence.

Was MOVE simply a radical, black separatist group with an alternative way of life? Or was it a terrorist cult that held a neighborhood and politicians hostage to its offensive language and bizarre behavior? Wagner-Pacifici shows how competing definitions of MOVE led to different strategies for managing the conflict. In light of the shockingly similar, and even more deadly, 1993 Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Texas, such an analysis becomes imperative. Indeed, for those who hope to understand—and, finally, to forestall—the moment when language and violence are inexorably drawn together, this book demands attention.

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 1994

Reviews

[Caroline Gerardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Grandmother lived a block from Osage Avenue. I hope Robin will address the divide that has not changed, perhaps is hidden in the mortar and covered up. I wasn't interested as much in the ideology of the persons who were behind MOVE but how this brews, then blows. Nearly thirty years later the neighborhood has not healed. In today's fast-paced cell phone video reporting we would shake our fist at a police plan to bomb a residential neighborhood as a solution. Police violence today is undercurrent, but randomly documented by the neighbor, passerby and sometimes the victim. Stories are hard to peel the pearl to the core sand and discover the whys and hows. The racial divide in America is perhaps worse than in the 1980's - where a neighborhood is attacked by gentrification, white people call the police to act out their own prejudice. I don't see police as only prejudice against blacks, they propel the violence in our culture right back at us. Enough of my thoughts, the book is quite excellent

[Renee King · Rating 3 out of 5]

An examination of the language that framed the entire event from MOVE's beginnings through the firebombing of the Osage Avenue by the city.

This is a scholarly work, so it is sometimes really dull and a slog to get through, but the author dissects the discourse of the MOVE tragedy into 4 main pillars of reference and then examines the language of both the city and MOVE with respect to those pillars: domesticity, bureaucracy, legal, military. The author also asks a good deal of thought-provoking questions as to whether outcomes could have been different with alternate language. In many cases, it seems that the obvious answer is in the affirmative. But it is not always the case, and so we are left wondering.

Enlightening and a good introduction to discourse analysis, and the discursive style of language that sometimes requires a deep inquiry and reasoning of its complex meaning.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and more philosophical than factual. Did not finish.

[Victor Devisme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad and beautiful

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting ... language and violence