Now that he's had time to think -- and 10 hours in police detention gives you time for introspection -- Dan Moffat concedes things might have gone better if he'd cooperated.
When officers came to his door in Francisville Friday morning about 10 a.m. asking to speak to the owner of the property where he and three roommates were living, he said the guy wasn't home.
Even though he's been co-owner of the place since 2004.
And when they said they were going in anyway to investigate a complaint, he says he probably shouldn't have tossed the keys behind a gate where the cops had to fish them out.
He woundup cuffed in the back of a squad car for a couple hot hours then taken to the 9th District where he was held another eight hours as the police sorted out what was happening in his house before freeing everyone without bringing charges.
But not before the police thoroughly searched the place, carting away a computer, and L & I sealed the building, leaving the four roommates homeless. Police told a City Paper reporter on the scene that the roommates were being investigated for belonging to a hate group or terror cell.
The four roommates -- two men and two women in their 20s -- are to appear at a press conference outside City Hall at 1 today to make their case that they were mistreated by police, who they say searched before getting a warrant. Accusations on both sides are prickly.
I talked to Moffat yesterday. He said he's interviewing lawyers. He said he does not know why he was targeted by police, but he had been going around the neighborhood with a petition that questioned why police had installed five security cameras on utility poles without asking for imput of the residents. He also had been getting names on a petition calling for city leaders to address the community about the recent police beating that involved 18 officers.
He says police came to his door investigating whether the group was living legally above the old Gilbert's Shoes store at 1652 Ridge Ave.
That wasn't why they were there, police say. Department spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said one of the neighborhood surveillance cameras had been spray painted yellow and was out of commission. Someone living nearby fingered people living in Moffat's house, which is why the police went there, Vanore said.
And when two women inside wouldn't give their names, and Moffat said he didn't know where to find the owner, police assumed the group was trespassing.
Moffat says he messed up. "I just woke up and was making bad decisions," he says. He's not an anarchist. Not even an activist, at 28, unless you consider feeding neighborhood residents on Fridays from their community garden to be activism.
Yet police say they recovered anti-police propaganda in the house, and that someone had written "Kill the Pigs" in yellow spray paint on the walls.
If anyone did that, Moffit says, it was the police, themselves.
Vanore says the police had every right to be there to investigate vandalism to the camera, especially after finding the writing on the wall and the beginnings of what he called a bunker on the roof.
"We've seen things like this in Philadelphia that lead to bad situations. We're trying to be proactive. The totality of what the officers saw there led to further investigation."
Moffat scoffs at the word bunker, which, of course, was what the MOVE group had atop their home.
"We have a greenhouse on the roof."
So the investigation continues. Moffat and friends hold a press conference, consider lawyers, and someone isn't telling the truth. The Daily News has an account as well.
All I know is that if a bunch of cops came to my door and woke me up -- at 3 a.m. even -- my instinct would be to cooperate to the point of blurting out anything I'd ever done, including not telling on my friend Gary when he stole a comb from Mr. Vincent's barbershop 40 years ago. But that's just conservative old me.
(Crickets)— jeffreyg61
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- I'm surprised people want to move to Philly. I'm also surprised the Philly.com media empire has given Michael Nutter a free pass so far. His commenets blaming the NRA for a cop shooting were very insensitive to the families and inaccurate. He appeared at campaign rally after rally for Hillary Clinton but when John Street wants an iPhone, Street gets the bad pub.— jeffreyg61
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HE DID IT!!! — Leron - I also love how we are all concerned with white peoples small injustices (alicia lane, "Bonnie and Clyde") yet many black people get killed and not one article is written on them and their injustice of not having a safe neighborhood.— jeffreyg61
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- A little devil tells me that if the individuals involved in this case had been "of color", the point of view of the news reporting would have been a bit different. Instead of "bohemians" they would have been "suspects", instead of a press conference they would have gotten a court hearing, and instead of a search they would have gotten a beating from the cops with no cameras to film it. Didn't the whole thing start when they got fingered for vandalizing a surveillance camera? This is tarting out as a "long, hot summer". I dread the possibilities.— DonQ
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- [points to the bearded guy in the photograph] IT WAS HIM!!— Leron
- The funny thing is just about EVERYONE who lives in the vicinity could be guilty of vandalizing the camera. I live near by and that part of Ridge is the ghetto...(white & black) poor people, livin' bad and making it worse. I wonder if it was the drunk who lives on the lounge chair in the vacant lot right there who fingered these guys.— msmame
- The police here do not have any respect for the laws they have sworn to protect. The faith I had in Mr. Nutter is vanishing. With all that went on violence wise yesterday in our city, this is where he felt best to spend the time and tax payers money. This wasn't a heat of the moment response from police, it was an organized, detailed and planned action. How many hours were spent planning this event before it occurred, and who raised their hand and said this is the most pressing issue?— Kevin O.
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