I barely remembered this. All I remember was shock that the city of Philadelphia would bomb it own citizens. Very weird and tragic.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

MOVE members and their supporters gathered at City Hall yesterday afternoon to mark today's 25-year anniversary of the Osage Avenue disaster.

"We never ever want anyone to forget the vicious murder of our family," said MOVE member Pam Africa.

"These people dropped a bomb and did that to stop us from exposing what's wrong in the system."

Carrying posters bearing the name of MOVE founder John Africa and signs with the face of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, about 40 peaceful demonstrators listened to speakers and handed out fliers to passers-by.

May 13, 1985, was the day Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the roof of the fortified MOVE house, sparking a fire that killed 11 people and destroyed an entire city block. (more...)

A little more from another article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The MOVE Commission investigating the events of May 13 was critical in its findings. "The plan to bomb the MOVE house was reckless, ill-conceived and hastily approved. Dropping a bomb on an occupied rowhouse was unconscionable and should have been rejected out of hand . . ." by the mayor, the managing director, the police commissioner, and the fire commissioner.

Charles W. Bowser, a member of the MOVE Commission, wrote separately that "Mayor Goode cannot be held responsible for the dark tragedy of May 13 for the worst reason of all: He was not leading when it counted the most."

But Goode is not interested in second-guessing. Instead, he has distilled the MOVE catastrophe into a handful of lessons.

First: "Make sure you understood what the total plan is before authorization to do it," he said. Goode was criticized for delegating too much authority to Police Commissioner Gregor J. Sambor and for being in the dark about details of the plan.

Second: "If you want to negotiate with people holed up inside a facility, don't send police officers. Send trained negotiators. And don't allow the police officers to be in charge of what happens at the scene. Make sure someone else is there at the scene."

Goode remained at his home and then his office for much of the day, discouraged from being on site or at the command center by threats against him and by his conviction that the confrontation was a police operation the mayor should not direct.

Third: "The third lesson is all life is important. Any loss of life is tragic, especially when it did not have to happen."

Fourth: "You need not be a bad person to have bad things happen on your watch."

I just don't understand the loss of live. Very sad.