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On this date - May 13, 1985 - Philadelphia Police dropped a bomb from a helicopter on a home owned by radical black nationalist group MOVE, destroying the house, killing 5 adults and 6 children, and causing a fire that burned down 61 black middle class homes. 1/ 
Prior to dropping the bomb, over 500 police officers fired more than 10,000 rounds into a house known to contain women and children. Finally, police commissioner Gregore J. Sambor ordered the dropping of the bomb, which had been "loaned" to the police by the FBI. 2/
The ensuing fire burned down a fairly well-off black neighborhood in West Philly, leaving 250 people homeless. 3/
Firefighters were standing by, but declined to put out the blaze until it had burned down much of the neighborhood. They later claimed they had not been ordered to put it out. 4/
Ironically, it had been complaints from the African American neighbors about the MOVE House that had prompted police action in the first place. 5/
Because bombing on a civilian home was clearly illegal, the bomb was euphemistically called an "entry device" in police records. However, an inquiry later found the bombing totally unjustified, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied house was unconscionable." 6/
A federal jury ordered the city of Philadelphia to pay $1.5 million to the woman who was the sole survivor of the bombing as well as two relatives of those killed, but the 61 black homeowners were not compensated for the loss of their bombed out homes. 7/
Instead, the city contracted with a developer to "replace" them, but the new homes were of incredibly shoddy, slapdash construction, with cracking foundations, faulty electrical wiring, improperly installed beams, and leaky roofs. 8/
The neighborhood never recovered. It took more than 20 years of pressure before the city finally offered the affected homeowners a meager "buyout" of a mere $190,000 each, in 2008. 9/
This might have seemed "generous" compared to prevailing home values at that time, but did not reflect more than two decades of terrible living conditions or the much higher value of the neighborhood, before an American city saw fit to bomb its own citizens from their air. 10/
