Dr. Aaron J. Ley
PSC 501 - Theory in Public Administration
URI Providence Feinstein MPA Program
Week 10 Summary Ready from Shafritz & Hyde
Policy Analysts: “A New Professional Role in Government Service” by Yehezkel Dror
Policy Paradox: “The Art of Political Decision Making” by Deborah Stone
Marie Y. Joseph 11/02/2014
PSC 501 – Case study: The MOVE disaster by Jack H. Nagel
The MOVE disaster
The facts: MOVE originated in Powelton, a village of West Philadelphia. The cult, comprised of forty people who were primarily black, adopted the philosophy of Vincent Leaphart, consisting of reverence for all animal life and a rejection of the American lifestyle. Leaphart changed his name to John Africa, and all
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his core members adopted the surname Africa to show reverence to Africa which they considered as their mother continent. As they instituted John Africa’s philosophy, MOVE experienced frequent tension with landlords and neighbors, who complained about their unsanitary practices and harboring of dogs, cats, rats, roaches and flies. MOVE also confronted the political system in all its manifestations from the Philadelphia Zoo to Jimmy Carter. During the 1970s, MOVE had multiple confrontations with the Philadelphia police and members were often arrested and brought to court.
In March 1976, when MOVE accused the police of causing the death of a MOVE infant, John Africa turned to armed resistance. In March 1, 1978, the city obtained court permission to blockade the MOVE headquarters for nonpayment of utility bills and refusal to admit inspectors. Authorities shut off the gas and water and remained off for two months until an agreement was reached. MOVE surrendered weapons, allowed inspectors to the property and promised to vacate it by August 1, 1978. In return, eighteen jailed MOVE members were freed and authorities promised to drop all charges once MOVE departed from …show more content…
Powelton. On August 1, MOVE ignored a court order to vacate the premises, leading police to use a crane to demolish the house on August 8th. MOVE confronted the police with gunfire killing officer James Ramp and wounding eight other policemen and firefighters. During the next five years, MOVE was visible to most Philadelphians through a series of trials. In 1980, nine members were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the murder of Officer Ramp, but John Africa was not among them. In 1981, John, along with a group of about a dozen adults and children, moved to 6221 Osage Avenue located three miles away from the site of the demolished house in Powelton. The issues: The municipality or the city of Philadelphia tried to dislodge a cult called MOVE Primary actors: Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Fire Commissioner William Richmond, City Managing Director, Leo Brooks, a former Army Major General and Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor, The lead actor was Mayor W. Wilson Goode. Prior to this appointment to Mayor of Philadelphia, Goode was a City Managing Director and he was very familiar with the MOVE saga. Under his administration, the MOVE situation continued to deteriorate, but Goode didn’t address the situation until 16 months later. Goode was an energetic, detail-oriented, disciplined, military man known for his hands-on approach; yet, he ignored the nightmare that Move created. Let us analyze the constraints that might have prevented him from taking any action: 1- Mayor Goode was black and MOVE was an organization seeking the liberation of black people and others who felt they did not fit in with the American society at that time. As a former civil rights activist who had been arrested many times for civil disobedience, Goode did not want to be hypocritical by using his power to silence MOVE because their lifestyle and concept of freedom differed from his perspective. 2- Goode did not trust the police with the black community. The Philadelphia police were under federal investigation for corruption and brutality after several MOVE members, including a pregnant woman who suffered a miscarriage, were severely beaten by police. 3- Goode was a home builder and wanted to avoid property loss. He served as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, where he was credited with building more housing than the entire city’s housing agencies combined [Cohn, 1982, p.27]. On May 3, 1978, a settlement was negotiated for MOVE to vacate their headquarters in Powelton on August 1st. After refusing to leave, police demolished the house. 4- Goode was a preserver of life. During the demolition process on August 8, there was an exchange of shots between MOVE members and the police, killing Officer James Ramp and wounding eight other policemen and firefighters. Therefore, Goode was persuaded that future confrontations with MOVE would result in loss of lives and properties. Policy of Avoidance and Non-confrontation Mayor Goode’s policy towards MOVE was one of appeasement, non-confrontation and avoidance. The Managing Director, city’s Department Heads, and the Chief of Police all failed to take any effective action on their own and, in fact, ordered their subordinates to refrain from action to deal meaningfully with the problem of Osage Avenue. During his administration, the Mayor was presented with compelling evidence that his policy of appeasement and non-confrontation was doomed to fail. In the summer of 1984, the Mayor was told that he had the legal basis to act against certain MOVE members. Yet, he refrained. From Fall of 1984 - Spring of 1985, the city’s policy of appeasement conceded to the residents of 6221 Osage Ave and the residents continued to exist above the law [PSIC, 1986, pp. 11-13]. SPECULATION ABOUT THE MAYOR’S BEHAVIOR Prior to his appointment to Mayor, many people thought Goode was inept and incompetent. Other people said that he was not incompetent because he was a rising star. He became mayor based on his performance. Until May 1985, both as Managing Director and as Mayor, he was perceived by the public as an incredibly hard working, demanding, and detail oriented manager. He loved to ask questions until he got an answer that made sense. “He loved to come down hard on details” [Mallowe, 1980, p. 139]. DEFENSIVE AVOIDANCE FOLLOWED BY HYPERVIGILANCE Psychologists described the Mayor’s behavior as defensive avoidance followed by hypervigilance. In simple English, delay followed by haste. The chief symptoms of defensive avoidance are procrastination, passing the buck and other ways of denying personal responsibility, and bolstering. When the mobilization of the Osage neighbors signaled to Goode that a continued policy of non-confrontation would lead to unacceptable dangers, severe political embarrassment and a high probability of violence against MOVE, Mayor Goode was forced to act, and in his state of hypervigilance, he accepted the first option presented to him. The ill-fated proposal devised by Sambor’s planners, the bombing of MOVE’s headquarters on Osage street, resulted in one of the most astounding debacles in the history of American municipal government. The bomb ignited an unexpected fire and the Fire Police Commissioner, Gregory Sambor, and Fire Commissioner, William Richmond, decided to let MOVE’s headquarters burn. The fire raged out of control, destroying 61 homes, leaving 250 people homeless and killing six adults and five children. Because of hypervigilance, Mayor Goode, Commissioner Sambor and his planners failed to draw on the resources of other agencies, consider alternative strategies and deprived themselves of expertise such as the use of trained hostage negotiators that might have resulted in a more effective implementation of their plan [PSIC, 1986, p.16]. RECOMMEMDATIONS TO PREVENT FUTURE CATASTROPHES OF SUCH MAGNITUDE As the head of public or private organizations, if you have the privilege to choose your immediate assistant, you should choose someone of a different background who is able to politely challenge your decision-making. One of the reasons for the catastrophe of May 13, 1985 is that Mayor Goode and the Director Manager had similar backgrounds and philosophies on life. The Mayor and the city’s Director Manager were both black and came from poor families in the south. They were both military man as the Mayor was a former U.S Army Captain and the Director was a retired general. They were both religious. In the case study, Janis and Mann [1977, p.396] recommends the following: 1- Learn to recognize the behavioral symptoms of defective decision-making such as defensive avoidance (procrastinating, buck-passing, and downplaying danger signals) and hypervigilance (grabbing the first available alternative, neglecting contingency plans, and believing that action must be taken under extreme pressure) 2- When these symptoms are observed, identify the central no-win dilemma or dilemmas. The desire to avoid responsibilities become strongest when one’s most central values are threatened. That is why Shakespeare said, “Know thyself.” 3- Learn to grasp problems firmly even when all options entail distasteful consequences for important values. Potential outcomes can be far worse if avoidance and hasty action permit a tough situation to deteriorate into a nightmare. The MOVE tragedy damaged the reputation of Mayor Goode, who until then had been considered an effective manager, a rising star of national politics and a symbol of hope for his city.
By cherishing his value, he became the Mayor of the MOVE members and not of their neighbors. The MOVE members mistreated their neighbors for a long time. Mayor Goode did not act until May13, 1978. This MOVE case teaches all of us, specifically present and future public servants that avoidance and hasty action after a situation deteriorates can result in a significantly worse outcome than proactive, thoughtful action at the onset of an
issue. References Cohn (1982, p.27) Janis and Mann (1977, p.396), “Decision Making: A psychological analysis of conflict, choice and commitment”. Mallowe (1980, p. 139) Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission (PSIC, 1986, pp. 11-13, p.16), Decision Making; Concept of Incremental Choice (p.242)
City of Pinellas Park v. Brown was a case brought to the District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District by the plaintiff Brown. In this case, the Brown family sued the City of Pinellas Sheriff Department on the grounds of negligence that resulted in the tragic death of two Brown sisters during a police pursuit of a fleeing traffic violator Mr. Deady. The facts in this case are straight forward, and I shall brief them as logical as possible.
The fourth chapter of City Politics by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom covers the rise of "Reform Politics" with many local governments during the first half of the 1900s as a way to combat the entrenched political machines that took control of many large city governments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Over the course of the chapter, Judd & Swanstrom quickly cover the history of the "reform movement" with different examples of how the reform movement affected city politics in different areas.
The MOVE Organization surfaced in Philadelphia in the early 1970’s. The MOVE movement was one of “back-to-nature,” which was poorly understood by their urban neighbors and the local government and possibly by the organization itself (McCoy). John Africa, who is said to have been illiterate, founded MOVE. It was a loosely organized and sparsely populated organization. I argue that the failure of MOVE to “bow to the man” and the lack of police and government self-control, led to the abuse of power and police brutality that culminated on May 13, 1985 of which the magnitude Black’s theories fail to predict. Black’s theories on law, specifically “Socio Economic Status” and “Organization” and its bearing on the application of law, will be used to analyze the MOVE II incident.
Kenneth Ashworth, a public servant, has served Texas and its fine education for more than thirty years and knows all the ins and outs of how the government works. He has written his book to benefit his niece, who has decided to follow in his footsteps, of all of his dealings from problematic politicians to many life lessons that have shaped him. Intended for his niece, this book has opened the minds for not only me and my peers, but for students around the state. After reading Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug, or How to Survive Public Service, Kenneth Ashworth makes a truthful point of knowing what the differences of personal responsibility and social responsibility is as a bureaucrat. Ashworth shows that social and personal responsibility can be two of the same if the morals of the person acting upon them are in good conscious.
Jim Crow policing is not a problem, the way certain cops are using it is becoming a problem in certain cities. A Witness of Jim Crow Policing and Racial Profiling, Bob Herbert, believes that the New York police department needs to be restrained due to his personal experiences. The author uses many examples to strengthen his argument in order to influence others to be against Jim Crow policing, yet throughout his article he lets his emotion show too much losing his credibility and straying from logic versus his opinion.
During the Harlem Renaissance period, Alain Locke considers African Americans as transforming into someone “new.” He describes how African Americans migrated from the south to the north and were given new opportunities. The old Negro was being taken away from constantly being scrutinized by the public and whites. The Negros transformed into stronger intellectuals which was significant because before they weren’t allowed to do so. For example, “Similarly the mind of the Negro slipped from under the tyranny of social intimidation and to be shaking off the imitation and implied inferiority.” The “new” Negro strived for equal rights. Alain Locke describes other factors that pushed African Americans to move north to discover a “rebirth.” The “new” Negro went north to obtain the opportunity to move up from the bottom, to get away from the Ku Klux Klan, and to get away from the pressure of having to many poor crops. For instance, he says “The wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of conditions.” By moving North the African Americans had a chance to live a better life and were set free of depending on the whites to take care of them in exchange for their labor. He also believes that the Negro began to experience something “new” by the way they began to understand and accept the Negro race. For example, Locke says, “With this renewed self- respect and self-dependence, the life of the negro community is bound to enter a new dynamic phase, the buoyancy from within compensating for whatever pressure there may be conditions from without.” The “new” then recognized the ability to become independent, which was a significant role of the “new” Negro because by gaining independence they then discover a life for themselves.
Rothstein (2014) states “long before the shooting of Michael Brown, official racial-isolation policies primed Ferguson for this summer’s events” (p. 1). Rothstein writes how African-Americans were denied access to better jobs, housing, education, and were placed into areas that eventually became slums. Blacks were relocated several times, which eventually “converted towns like Ferguson into new segregated enclaves” (Rothstein, 2014, p. 9). Government policies were a catalyst that caused what is known as white flight, or the movement of white residents to more private residential, upscale areas, in which blacks could not afford or were not permitted to reside. Some neighborhoods used eminent domain laws to keep blacks from moving into white developments. Blacks were targeted with unethical lending rates by banks. Deceptive real estate practices were the norm when it came to selling houses to African American families. Before 1980, laws allowed boundary and redevelopment policies to keep blacks from white neighborhoods. However, in 1980, the federal courts ordered all forms of government to create plans on school and housing integration. Rothstein (2014) adds “public officials ignored the order” and only “devised a busing plan to integrate schools” (p. 4). The housing market collapse, along with exploding interest rates, left the black neighborhoods devastated, as stated by Rosenbaum (2014, p. 9). Ferguson was less that 1% black in 1970, however by the time Michael Brown was killed in 2014, the community was nearly 70% black, with its schools nearly 90% black. In review, Hannah-Jones (2014) relays how the white flight from St. Louis caused businesses and jobs to leave along with the residents. With their departure, the schools also suffered. Schools
Africa movement, encouraging African Americans to return Africa as a way to escape the racism
The city’s budget crisis was not a surprise, the City Manager had forecasted the shortfall and brought it to the attention of the city council. Based on the organizational structure, the City Manager clearly had more knowledge and information about the city’s budget, which was his source of power. However, the city council actually controls the resources (money in this case) and how and where to distribute the resource. Both, the City Manager and city council possess authority and power that neither want to relinquish; as a result, the employees suffered. Smithville city leaders needed to come together at the onset of the budget crisis and work together in a direct democratic fashion. When leaders come together and synthesize facts and resources, organizational members can increase the power they exert within an organization (Morgan, 2006). The budget crisis could potentially have been avoided had city leaders made an appeal to the public, explained the situation and offered a reasonable solution to the problem. Moreover, the transparency would have relieved some tension between the City Manager, city council, and the three labor unions. Because the city was not transparent and forthcoming with union leaders, the city negotiators enter the negotiation process giving members false hope of receiving salary and benefit increases when there were none to give. In summary, given the current situation, the City Manager needed to exert his expert power on the budget issue, join alliance with the union leaders, and push the city council to change city charter to implement the sales tax, which would have potentially off-set the budget
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
Mayor becames a better man. He doesn’t afraid to fight for Maribel. “And that’s when I punched him. I’d never punched anyone in my life, but before I knew it, I squeezed my hand shut, drew back my elbow, and punched Garrett right in the side of the neck. I’d been aiming for his face, but I missed (128). Garrett keeps humiliating Maribel in the face of Mayor. Mayor can’t stand any bad things or bad words towards Maribel. Therefore, he fights for Maribel and this is the first time he ever fights someone. There are a lot of first time moments after he met Maribel. Even though he doesn’t really punch Garrett. We are still happy to see he changes and finally brave to fight
The change of venue is granted rarely and is mainly based on costs and convenience, as well as media coverage and threat for impartial jury. In addition, this article is mainly focused on Rodney King's beating and the accused police officers ( Margolick, 1992, para. 6, and 7). Another reason for changing venue is fear for future retaliation and riots based on the verdict. In addition, the county were the trial was held had a major population of African Americans and their interactions with police shaped a certain view about the law enforcement. Such thing happened 1989 when Judge Spencer moved the trial from Miami to Orlando for those same reasons ( Margolick, 1992, para. 9, and 10). Based on the information in the article, which was published in 1992, legislators in both California and New Jersey
Preceding the Manhattan Criminal Court engraved is the quote “Equal and exact justice for all men of whatever state or persuasion” which supposed to extend to my family. Unfortunately, indigent minority neighborhoods have a false view of the extent and meaning of Constitutional protections, so we were helpless. The quote rang hollow to me because it did not extend to us. A wide gap exists in ethnicity between the individuals in conflict with the court of law and the individuals chosen to represent them in the court of law. This highlights the connection between criminal justice and crime with economic inequality. My family could not afford a lawyer furthermore; the case resulted in a dismissal. Without proper representation the case faltered, evidence overlooked, suspects not interviewed, and the crime scene jeopardized. The need for individuals to understand their rights is important. Adequate education allows individuals to understand their rights, which is necessary for success and society must present such opportunity. My goal of becoming a social advocate is to contribute in the lives of my Brooklyn’s community. As well, as stem the growing tide of injustice and ...
The process of decolonization in Africa during the 1950’s through the 1970’s was a very smart yet risky idea. For some places independence was easily gained yet in other areas it was a battle. During the time periods where colonization existed, Africa was peaceful and kept things in order. People had control over their specific locations and there were no questions to be asked. Once it was decided to remove these rights, things got out of hand rather quickly. Violence was a main occurrence during the decolonization timeframe because rules, rights, leaderships, etc. got altered and drastically changed. Sometimes nonviolence was used but it usually wasn’t as effective. A major example of using nonviolence actions to gain independence is when Gandhi protested in India. African leaders have tried very hard to lessen the influence of Western powers and the broader international community but they’ve never been completely successful because they continuously needed support in state building, economic development, and public health initiatives.
...rry their pass books (“Black’s resistance to Apartheid”). “During 1980 there were 304 major incidents concerning struggle with apartheid including arrests, tear gas violence, stoning, and strikes (“Black’s resistance to Apartheid”). In 1986 violent conflict forced the government to assert a national state of emergency (Wright, 68). The Public Safety Act increased penalties such as fining, imprisonment, and whippings for protesting the law (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”).