MOVE Controversy In Cherry Hill

The latest controversy involving the group MOVE has moved to a different state.

Members of the back-to-nature group are embroiled in a child custody case and on Friday they took that dispute from Philadelphia to New Jersey.

MOVE members said that they would do anything they have to do to protect the 6-year-old boy at the center of the controversy.

Last weekend, the group fortified their headquarters in west Philadelphia with boarded up windows. On Friday, dozens of members of MOVE rallied outside of their headquarters in support of fellow member Alberta Africa.

The group then took the demonstration to Cherry Hill, where police were waiting for them.

They gathered in Cherry Hill, N.J., because Africa, her son and the boy's father live in the community. The demonstrators are protesting a judge's order that gives unsupervised visits to Africa's ex-husband, John Gilbride. Africa claims that Gilbride abused the boy, but the judge disagreed.

"John Gilbride is trying to kidnap this child. He does not want custody, he wants revenge on Alberta Africa," said one protestor.

"This has never been an issue of MOVE trying to keep the child from the father. We've always encouraged the father to come and visit this child. We've always encouraged that. He's always had supervised visits," announced one MOVE member at the Cherry Hill demonstration. "Philadelphia officials are using the excuse of a 6-year-old child and his well-being. They're hiding behind that issue to come out here and commit murder. To murder MOVE people like they did on May 13, 1985."

With police keeping a close watch, members of MOVE fanned out into the community telling residents about the problem.

Gilbride was out of town Friday and told police had no intention of enforcing his visitation rights this weekend.

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