“The MOVE Crisis in Philadelphia: Extremist Groups & Conflict Resolution”, by Hiskias Assefa, and Paul Wahrhatfig

According to Assefa and Wahrhatfig's work, the Philadelphia police department was only a microcosm of the overall corruption for which it ran, or 'policed' itself.

       In 1978, the Philadelphia police raided a home in Powelton Village; a part of the neighborhood system that makes Philadelphia unique. The raid resulted in the death of one police officer, and the imprisonment of nine people, now known as “The MOVE 9.” Although this put a strain on the public’s perception of MOVE members as a whole, it did not diminish the overall lack of trust regarding the Philadelphia police department, and the city’s political officials. Years before this struggle occurred, cops and civilians alike watched as the landscape of civil inequality began to take hold on the city of Philadelphia, and around the country.

     In sum, the incidents which took place in 1978 and in 1985 show how the misuse of power can result in the devastation of a city and the deviation of its officials.

           Assefa, H.,Wahrhaftig, P., Extremist Groups and Conflict Resolution: The Move Crisis in Philadelphia.(2005) New York, Praeger Place of Publication. : (1988). Page Number: iii.

"Policing Urban America", by Geoffrey P. Alpert & Roger G. Dunham

     This book relates to the inner workings of the police department, not just in Philadelphia, but the United States as a whole. Law enforcement and all of its attending problems has changed drastically throughout the past thirty years; city communities, particularly the poorer ones, are only part of that problem relative to police and  corruption.

     Posited by the authors here,  lack of knowledge regarding names of those the police are duty-bound to protect ,the places within that neighborhood upon which old ties were formed, and the people (that used to know their police force on a first-name basis) within the city's limits is but a few of many misgivings attributed to the lack of the now antiquated societal relationships that used to be an integral part of law enforcement and policing, particularly within the most impoverished of neighborhoods.

     Policing urban America, according to Alpert & Dunham, has become an anomaly of rage, indifference to community needs, and an overall lack of empathy perpetrated by the police and its many departments.Discretionary measures and oversight committees would be only a few of the ways to alleviate the rampant greed and corruption that goes on within the walls of the police department.

     Alpert, G., Dunham, R.G.(1992) Policing Urban America: Prospect Heights, Illinois, Waveland Press, Inc. (1988, 1992). Page Number: ii