The film, Let the Fire Burn, features police testimony from the MOVE Special Investigation Commission. Over the course of the film, the audience hears police officers, chiefs, and commissioners discuss the relationship between the Philadelphia Police Department and MOVE members as well as the events and conflicts that transpired between the two groups. During the police testimonies, three contradictions arise in the police’s framing and use of violence. The policemen’s perceptions of MOVE members as enemy combatants allowed the contradictions in the minds of the police and in their rhetoric to exist and allowed the police to wield and use the weapons that produced the catastrophic damage to Osage Avenue on May 13th, 1985.
In the framing and the use of violence, members of the Philadelphia Police Department voiced a number of contradictions. First, they stated that the purpose of the police was to merely evict the MOVE members; yet, they trained and prepared for a violent confrontation that would require a small army of police officers. Second, the eviction …show more content…
As such, recognizing the police’s perception of the dual nature of physical structure that MOVE members occupied as both a house in a civilian neighborhood and as a compound of suspects, the understanding of the situation as an eviction that warranted bringing military tools and strategy makes sense. Since the police would be entering a war zone, they had to bring effectively superior tools and strategies to the fight. Understanding Osage Avenue as a both war zone and as a domestic neighborhood created the contradiction of the desire for a safe eviction of American citizens with the combined use wartime tools such as bombs and
In the framing and the use of violence, members of the Philadelphia Police Department voiced a number of contradictions. First, they stated that the purpose of the police was to merely evict the MOVE members; yet, they trained and prepared for a violent confrontation that would require a small army of police officers. Second, the eviction …show more content…
As such, recognizing the police’s perception of the dual nature of physical structure that MOVE members occupied as both a house in a civilian neighborhood and as a compound of suspects, the understanding of the situation as an eviction that warranted bringing military tools and strategy makes sense. Since the police would be entering a war zone, they had to bring effectively superior tools and strategies to the fight. Understanding Osage Avenue as a both war zone and as a domestic neighborhood created the contradiction of the desire for a safe eviction of American citizens with the combined use wartime tools such as bombs and