The 1985 MOVE bombing, locally known by its date, May 13, 1985, was the aerial bombing and destruction of residential homes in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by the Philadelphia Police Department during an armed standoff with MOVE, a black liberation organization. Philadelphia police were shot at as they attempted to evict MOVE members from a house. Philadelphia police aviators then dropped two explosive devices from a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter onto the roof of the occupied house. For 90 minutes, the Philadelphia Police Department allowed the resulting fire to burn out of control, destroying 61 previously evacuated neighboring homes over two city blocks and leaving 250 people homeless. Six adults and five children were killed in the attack, with one adult and one child surviving who were occupants of the home. A lawsuit in federal court found that the city used excessive force and violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
I think, ultimately, that the city cops were out of control enough under his administration to perform this atrocity is pretty damning regardless of whether he signed off on it, buck stops here and all that jazz; I was just morbidly curious as to how closely he was connected.
To be fair, he had just taken office the year before, and as the city’s first black mayor was probably dealing with extremely well-ingrained systemic racism - back then it was likely openly so in some cases, in fact. I can see that position leading to having to walk a fine line in how he handled keeping the rank and file in line who didn’t like having to answer to a black man. I don’t envy the challenges he likely faced, but I’m also willing to bet he made some choices he shouldn’t have in an attempt to maintain stability of city government under his leadership.