What, to the best of my knowledge, remains the only bombing of an American city by its own police force, Osage Avenue, West Philadelphia, 13th May 1985. Eleven human beings died, five of them children. Associated Press photograph.

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   Adam Greenfield (adamgreenfield@social.coop)'s status on Saturday, 27-May-2023 22:22:45 JST Adam Greenfield

   Not yet 17, I disobeyed my parents and drove to the police barricades at the far end of Osage Avenue after nightfall, as close as I could get to the bombing – I needed to see it with my own two eyes. The overwhelming memory I carried away with me, though, was olfactory, and not visual: I promise you that nobody within a five-mile radius of West Philadelphia that night will ever quite be able to get the smell of that murder out of their nostrils. It’s 38 years gone by and it feels like yesterday.