^înrtlanb (Observer
N o vem b er 13, 2013
Page 19
Police Power Run Amuck
narrates how police w ere required
to “o u tg u n ” the group as though he
peated arrests o f such a sm all n u m is describing a large guerilla arm y.
ber o f people is m ind-boggling.
In that final 1985 confrontation,
W hile M O V E ’S leader John A f in w hich a handful o f M O V E m em
rica m ay well have intended to p ro bers including w om en and children
voke the escalating confrontations w ere holed up in a row house w hile
that follow ed over a period o f 13 p olice unleashed tear gas and fired
years, one m arvels at the failure o f 10 thousand rounds o f am m unition
city leaders to w onder for even a into the house, the co m m issio n er
m om ent about w hat in the life ex p e suggests that children m ight have
rience o f these A frican A m ericans fired on police and opines that the
w ould m ake the m o v em en t’s p h i group w as in an “enviable po sitio n ”
losophy so appealing. It’s a stun th a t n e c e ssita te d th e p o lic e re
ning exam ple o f people in pow er sponse. O ne w onders w h eth er he
failing utterly to recognize their ow n w ould have traded places w ith them.
roles in creating a com m unity w ith
T he film ’s m ost pow erful m o
so little to lose.
m ents involve B irdie A frica, the one
C o n flicts betw een p o lice and child w ho survived the bom bing
M O V E culm inated in an exchange o f and w ho w as deposed j n co n n ec
fire that resulted in a police officer’s tion w ith the inquiry that follow ed.
death in 1978. Bafflingly, nine M O V E H e describes his experiences g ro w
m em bers w ere convicted o f shooting ing up in the com m une, including
that one officer (they insist he was how he rebelled against the g ro u p ’s
killed by friendly fire) and received raw food diet and w anted to run
long sentences which they are still aw ay so that he could ride bikes and
serving. T he rest o f the group set up w atch T V like oth er children. His
a ne w headquarters after being evicted plain-spoken description o f how he
from their first house, and they pro and the other children huddled un
ceeded to antagonize their m ostly d er w et blankets during the 1985
A fric a n -A m e ric a n n e ig h b o rs by siege and th eir desperate attem pts
broadcasting profanity-laced rheto to escape stands in co n trast to o f
ric at all hours, creating sanitation fic e rs’ nonsensical accounts.
problem s, and leaving their children
B irdie, w ith b u m scars visible on
to run wild. The city’s first black his face, is ask ed at the b eginning o f
m ayor was elected in 1983, but lacked his d e p o sitio n w h at h a p p en s to
eitherthe skill or w isdom todeescalate p eople w ho d o n ’t tell the truth, and
the conflict that had been set in m o he responds that they w ill be hurt.
tion under R izzo’s adm inistration.
O ne is struck by the irony o f that
In this retelling, the tragedy seem s response as one listens to officers
inexorable. A lthough one official deny having shot at M O V E m em
com m ends the police for their “ad bers, including children, as they
m irable restraint” in the 1978 co n em erged from the house and then
frontation, footage had cap tu red ran back inside. W hen an adm irably
several officers savagely beating restrain ed m in ister expresses in cre
one M O V E m em ber. T he particu dulity at the description o f people
larly repellant police com m issio n er running back into a burning house,
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 13
"Your Budget is our mission"
BUDGET INSURANCE
an o ffice r’s response conveys the
inhum anity that the governm ent had
allow ed itself: “ H ow could you [un
derstand]? T h e y ’re M O V E m em
b e rs.”
W ithout voiceover o r co m m en
tary beyond lim ited screen d escrip
tions o f som e key facts, the film
w isely allow s participants in this
trag ed y — including B irdie and a
sm all handful o f M O V E m em bers,
but also police and city officials—
to describe w hat happened from
th eir perspective. M ost o f the g o v
ernm ent w itnesses (not one o f w hom
w as ev er crim inally charged for the
actions that led to the deaths o f so
m any civilians) dam n them selves,
p articularly from this 30 y e ars’ d is
tance.
O nly one o fficer took actions
protective o f the people inside, and
his testim ony is p articularly p o i
gnant. V isibly agonized, he d e
scribes how he w as restrained by a
superior officer from assisting Birdie
as the boy attem pted to escape the
burning house. The officer finally
assisted the b oy— and later found
his lo ck er decorated w ith the w ords
“N -------- L over.” H e eventually left
the force suffering from PTSD .
F ilm m ak er O sd er’s careful co m
pilation o f this history— so recent
and yet already so neglected— is an
im portant lens on how drastically
go v ern m en t p o w er can assum e the
ch aracteristics it ascribes to its er
rant citizens.
D a rk e n O rtega is a ju d g e on the
O regon C ourt o f A ppeals and the
first w om an o f co lo r to serve in that
capacity. H er m ovie review colum n
O p inionated Judge appears re g u
larly in T he P ortland O bserver. Y ou
c a n f in d h e r m o v ie b lo g at
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