Shame on you Dr. Thomas Farley

First and foremost, I imagine myself in the shoes of someone who was related to the MOVE members who were burned alive in a fire that was started when city officials decided to drop a bomb on a row house on Osage Avenue on Mother’s Day, May 13, 1985. As if the pain and devastation of knowing that your children or grandchildren, your family members were killed in a blaze started by police and fire officials, at the behest of their superiors, wasn’t horrific enough, all these years later now you find out that the remains of your loved ones were recently cremated, but no one from the city of Philadelphia had the decency to ask you if that was ok. Then a day later, you are told that information was a “mistake.” Your loved one’s remains were not cremated after all, and here’s our sincerest apology.
What the H-E- double hockey sticks are going on, and who do you believe?
All I know is this. As a Mother and a Grandmother to MOVE the organization and the Africa family, I would want my right to decide what to do with my loved one’s remains. I am outraged that Dr. Thomas Farley took it upon himself to decide the best thing to do with the remains of MOVE members who died on Osage Avenue in 1985, was to cremate them, without the family’s knowledge.
Farley absolutely should have been fired and good riddance.
Prior to the pandemic, I was willing to give Philadelphia’s now most recent “ex-Health Commissioner the benefit of the doubt. He seemed like he was up to the job. When the pandemic became our new norm, I think health commissioners and other medical experts across the board were tested, over and over, because the Coronavirus was a new disease, the likes of which none of us had seen before. So yes, there were mistakes and missteps and instances where even doctors and scientists had to walk back some statements they may have made related to COVID-19.
Through much of that, Farley hung right in there, giving daily, live news updates during the height of the pandemic for Philadelphia residents. But then the cracks began to show.
When the news story broke that Dr. Farley was largely the one behind selecting a 21-year-old graduate student from Drexel University, to have a big contract to set up and operate a big COVID-19 testing clinic in Center City. Later, he gave this same young person a contract to do COVID-19 vaccinations, choosing the 21-year-old with no medical background or experience, over-proven, top-notch medical doctors. I had a problem with Dr. Farley. When his irresponsible and bad decision-making was exposed 4-months ago, he should have been fired then, but the city allowed some poor female doctor who worked for the city health department to be the “Fall Guy.” Farley got to hold onto his gig for a little longer.
But the gig’s up now.
Philadelphia’s top health official was fired last week. Some media outlets tried to put it nicely and say he resigned, but Farley was FIRED last Thursday after the mayor said he learned partial human remains from the 1985 bombing of the headquarters of Move had been cremated and disposed of without notifying family members.
As the story goes, Farley decided to cremate and dispose of the remains of the MOVE bombing victims several years ago.
The announcement of Farley’s ouster came on the 36th anniversary of the MOVE bombing by design after Kenney consulted victims’ family members. Among the 11 slain when police bombed the organization’s headquarters, causing a fire that spread to more than 60-row homes, were five children.
In a statement released by the Mayor’s office, Farley said that in early 2017 he was told by the city’s medical examiner, Dr. Sam Gulino, that a box had been found containing materials related to MOVE bombing victims’ autopsies. “In the box were bones and bone fragments, presumably from one or more of the victims,” Farley said. It is a standard procedure to retain specimens after an autopsy ends and the remains are turned over to the decedent’s next-of-kin, Farley said.
“Believing that investigations related to the MOVE bombing had been completed more than 30 years earlier, and not wanting to cause more anguish for the families of the victims, I authorized Dr. Gulino to follow this procedure and dispose of the bones and bone fragments,” Farley said.
The decision was his alone, and other top city officials were not consulted, he said.
“I profoundly regret making this decision without consulting the family members of the victims, and I extend my deepest apologies for the pain this will cause them,” Farley wrote.
Kenney said Farley’s decision lacked empathy. Gulino has also been put on leave pending an investigation, Kenney said.
“I had the opportunity to meet with members of the Africa family and apologize for the way this situation was handled and for how the city has treated them for the last five decades,” Kenney said in a statement. MOVE members took the surname Africa after the group’s founder, John Africa.
Kenney said he informed family members about what officials did with the remains, which had been kept in a storage room. The volume of remains was unclear, and Kenney said he hoped to determine where and how they were disposed of.
The city has hired a law firm to investigate and has agreed to include lawyers for the victims’ families in the process.
Days after she learned that some of her daughter’s remains may not have been destroyed, Consuela Africa says she does not want an apology, she wants closure.
Now here’s the twist. Wait for it.
Mayor Jim Kenney released a statement late Friday saying that the remains of MOVE bombing victims “thought” to have been cremated in 2017, under orders from Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, were located at the medical examiner’s office that afternoon. “I am relieved that these remains were found and not destroyed. However, I am also very sorry for the needless pain that this ordeal has caused the Africa family,” Kenney said, adding that “many unanswered questions” surround the case-including why Farley’s order wasn’t obeyed.
At this point, if I were in the position of a family member to one of the Africa family or Move members, I would want DNA testing on the remains, (paid for at the city’s expense) to confirm for me, that indeed these are the remains of my loved ones. I cannot imagine learning that, “After burning up your family in a house on Osage, 33 years later, we cremated their remains without your knowledge. Then less than 24 hours later being told, “No we didn’t cremate your loved ones’ remains. Our mistake. We still have them.”
The MOVE Family has obtained the professional services of Leon A. Williams, Esq. one of the top African American attorneys in PA. Mr. Williams, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer, stated that city officials, including Kenney, had notified the family Friday about “finding” the remains they thought were cremated.
Kenney’s statement said the family members and their representatives were able to ask the medical examiner’s office questions, and he pledged to turn over the remains once the investigation was complete.