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Police Critics Illegally Arrested, Home Seized

 By Jeff Rousset

On the morning of Friday, June 13, 2008, police entered a home in North Philadelphia without warrant and illegally arrested its four residents, who had been petitioning against police brutality and new police surveillance cameras in their community.  The residents were held without charges for and permanently kicked out of their home the next day. 

Daniel Moffat, 28, who co-owns the house on the 1600 block of Ridge Avenue, was detained along with his three housemates, who have been living there up to four years, after police entered their home without a warrant.  

While handcuffed in the backseat of a police cruiser on one of the hottest days of the year Moffat says when he asked 9^th Police District Captain Dennis Wilson what he was accused of, the Captain responded: "You're not being charged, you're being investigated." He says Wilson told him sarcastically to "call it a kidnapping."

According to police, the house was initially targeted because they suspected trespassing.  The Department of Homeland Security, Housing Authority, Licensing & Inspections, and PA State Police were all called to investigate the scene.

Drumming up Charges?

Wilson, who led police, told the City Paper: "They're a hate group. We're trying to drum up charges against them, but unfortunately we'll probably have to let them go."

Police on the scene claimed there was anti-government and anti-police literature inside which was a cause for concern.

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said police suspected a bunker was being built on the roof, “similar to what we saw on Osage Avenue,” referring to the home of the MOVE organization, which was bombed by a police helicopter on May 13^th, 1985, killing six adults and five children, and started a fire that burned down over 60 homes.  The “bunker” on Ridge Avenue is actually a greenhouse which the roommates use to grow produce which they give away to homeless people.

The housemates reported spending hours in the car before Wilson told them, "We're going to do you a favor.  It's a very hot day, and we're going to bring you down the district and put you in a cell so you don't overheat."

Gathering Their Belongings

After spending about twelve hours in jail the housemates were released, still without charges.  Shortly afterward they were given two hours under police escort to collect whatever belongings they could from their house, before it was boarded up and condemned as unfit to live in.

"When I got to my room, it had been thoroughly searched," Moffat said. "All my photographs on the floor, all my filing cabinets emptied. It was a wreck.”  He says things were missing like phone number lists and notebooks.  His laptop was also confiscated by police for investigation. 

"This leaves me homeless, without access to things I need. My whole life is disrupted," said Moffat.

The house is near the rapidly gentrifying areas of Fairmount and Spring Garden.  Others have been kicked out of their homes nearby here and around Philly to make way for developers and more expensive housing.

Community Activism Included Criticism of Police

Moffat and his housemates are active in their community.  They give out free food regularly to people in need, help maintain a local garden, and give away free plants to neighbors. 

Edna Williams runs the Mary Jane Home Enrichment Center on the same block as the group and has been serving homeless and needy people in the neighborhood for over thirty years.  She has been publicly recognized for her good work and is a well respected, veteran community leader.

Williams strongly defended Moffat and his friends.  "You need to get that out there," she said, "these are good kids."  They helped her paint the exterior of her community center, and regularly give her food they grow to distribute to the hungry.

Moffat and his roommates had recently been circulating a petition calling for further investigations into the now infamous incident which took place earlier this month, when over a dozen Philadelphia Police officers were filmed by a Fox helicopter brutally beating 3 unarmed men.  They were also petitioning against newly installed police surveillance cameras in their neighborhood.

The residents were never contacted regarding the alleged unsafe condition of their building, although Moffat admits he was missing some permits and the house was being fixed up. 

Apparently, the house was never a problem until the people inside the house became a problem to the police.  Looking at the MOVE bombing, this new incident, and uncounted others, reveals the consistent dedication of the Philadelphia Police Department to squash dissent by any means necessary.  As an increasing number of people are kicked out of their homes in Philadelphia and across the United States, an increasing number of police officers patrol the streets and assert the power of the State over individuals.

SOURCES: Daily News, City Paper, and Phawker blog.

--Jeff Rousset is a freelance writer and member of Philly Students for a Democratic Society. This essay appears in the new issue of the Journalists for Mumia newspaper: Abu-Jamal News, whose website is Abu-Jamal-News.com.

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