A Fire You Can't Put Out

"This process is necessary to prevent such a terrible thing to ever happen again."

- Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission Chairman William H. Brown III, 1985

Being nostalgic for the 90s is what people do now, and I'm no exception. I was 6 in 1993, so I was somewhat aware of the news but definitely not all the shady details. The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary by Brett Morgan called June 17th, 1994 is amazing to watch if you know about the white Bronco chase with OJ Simpson, but didn't know it was one of the biggest days in sports history. Seriously - so many things were happening that day and history was being made, but OJ really cluttered up the news. It's a superb documentary, and the kind where the director lets the found footage do all the talking - which is my favorite style of documentary - but this isn't about June 17th, 1994. 

That doc about the 90s spurred me on to watch a doc about another event that happened in my lifetime, but was too young to understand. I started searching for Waco.

Director: Wiliam Gazecki 1997

On YouTube I found Waco: The Rules of Engagement. Directed by William Gazecki, the film mostly conveys an anti ATF stance, where footage and phone conversations between the cult group, the Branch Davidians, and the FBI show that the US government ruthlessly attacked women and children in the name of suppressing a group that was stockpiling weapons. During the 51 day siege, there were disputes over who fired the first shot, the ATF insisting one of the Davidians fired first, prompting the incessant teargassing and machine gun fire that would eventually set the compound ablaze and kill 76 people.

While the leader David Koresh was infamous for allegations that he was sexually abusing young female followers, certain scenes from the subsequent trial, implied that discussion about the sexual perversions of David Koresh were considered a diversion from the serious transgressions of the ATF. For instance, the ATF's defense brought in a witness who was molested by Koresh years before when her family was in the cult. While her testimony was tragic the prosecution questioned the relevance and reminded the defense that despite what David Koresh may have done to those poor people, the ATF was still under fire for possibly contributing to the effective execution of those individuals who were victimized by Koresh as they described. This thorough film makes a point to stay on track and focus solely on the siege and it's aftermath.


 With this still fresh in my mind, I searched Netflix for similar fare, and the title Let The Fire Burn caught my eye.

Director: Jason Osder 2013

As it turns out, eight years earlier, another group considered to be a cult, was burned alive in their compound. This time, it took place in West Philadelphia. It's 1985, Mother's Day, and the Pennsylvania State Police are once again after the black liberation / back to nature cult, the Move Organization. Move was thought to have stockpiled fire arms, in addition to creating dozens of complaints from neighbors concerning building codes and aggressive behavior. They, like the Davidians, experienced a siege. Theirs only lasted 24 hours, but managed to destroy 60 homes in a dense neighborhood. Only two people in the Move house survived.

Much like Waco, the facilitators of the siege were taken to court over the validity of the force and fire used to vacate the people of Move from their house; a force that appeared to be an outright murder rather than an evacuation.

It is disheartening to know that something like this would happen over again, and I wonder what other instances of this escalation have happened or could be currently happening.

This is a venn diagram of how the Waco siege and the Move siege held many similarities.

The opening quote spoken by William H. Brown III is from court room footage in Let The Fire Burn. The "process" he describes is the thorough interviews and testimonies given by the police, the remaining and former members of the cult organization in question, and the innocent civilians who were affected. All sides believed themselves the victims in some aspect, and it was important to hear all sides to find justice.

The similarities of this incident to Waco struck me, but I believe the Move siege appeared to have affected many more people who had nothing to do with Move or the Philadelphia police. On the one hand the neighbors did want to see Move, well, move. On the other hand the police wanted to smoke out 11 people from one building so badly 60 homes were destroyed in the process. While the citizens had negative testimonies concerning Move's relationship to the community, they were rightfully up in arms over how the Philadelphia police handled the situation.

Between the two documentaries Let The Fire Burn was my favorite. Waco: The Rules of Engagement
was informative, but very long, clocking in at over 2 hours. As mentioned earlier, I really enjoy a documentary that can convey it's message without talking heads or narration in the traditional sense, and Let The Fire Burn was successfully made in that style. Footage from local news stations of that fateful day are interwoven with segments of a student documentary from the 1970s about Move, and video of the court proceedings with some captions, but no narration whatsoever. It gives you a sense of the time period and the emotions flowing behind every viewpoint. It speaks to all sides of the story and attempts at purveying the truth.