It’s not too often that you see a crowd of people standing in the pouring rain to celebrate a crime, especially one that involves breaking into an FBI office. But that is exactly what happened on Wednesday night in Media, where spectators stood to watch the unveiling of a new historical marker.
The marker serves to celebrate and commemorate a burglary that took place in 1971. The burglary was started and executed by a group of activists from the Philadelphia Area and helped to expose illegal FBI surveillance practices.
The sporadic rain didn’t keep the large crowd from forming outside of the old office building where the historical marker was placed. The unveiling followed a dedication ceremony in which Betty Medsger, the former Washington Post reporter who broke the initial story, spoke briefly about the occasion. Upon reflection on the event, she said, “It’s wonderful to see this new chapter added to the story of the Media Burglary.”
After a screening of the film 1971, a documentary detailing the burglary, Medsger was accompanied by two of the original Media burglars, Bonnie Raines and Keith Forsyth. They took part in a panel discussion along with Johanna Hamilton, the creator of 1971. The panel was led by Temple Media Studies and Production professor and journalist Marc Lamont Hill.
This historical marker is one of 2500 in Pennsylvania and the second one to be placed in the Media Borough.
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