Information Lack Cited in Bombing: Top Philadelphia Officials Say They Lost Touch in Assault on Radical Group Move

Information Lack Cited in Bombing: Top Philadelphia Officials Say They Lost Touch in Assault on Radical Group Move

The first steps of investigating city officials

This New York Times article demonstrates how unprepared the city was to deal with the ramifications of the bombing, as well as major communication issues at the top level of city government. As the investigation was ongoing, Mayor W. Wilson Goode testified that he was uninformed of details of the assault on the MOVE compound, though he did admit that he agreed to the bombing. This contradicted the testimonies of other city officials. In addition, the city 's Managing Director, Leo Brooks, was out of communication for most of the day. As Commission member Bruce Kaufmann put it, "What we have here is a lot of seperate departments not communicating very well with each other and no one speaking out." This demonstrated communication failures within city government as well as a failure for anyone to take the blame for the bombing.

Lindsey Gruson

New York Times

October 19, 1985

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