THE FIRST TIME I MET MICHAEL NUTTER we were hiding behind a car dodging police bullets in West Philadelphia. The fact that the cops weren't deliberately shooting at us had little to do with why we were hiding. The most convincing reason was the sound of whizzing bullets overhead and the pee-twee-oo of riccochets off lampposts and asphalt. We didn't realize it at the time, but we were caught up in the most lethal firefight in city history. The British army fired fewer shots when invading Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War than the 10,000 rounds Philadelphia police fired into a fortified rowhouse on Osage Avenue one day in May 27 years ago. By the end of the day 11 people were dead, five of them children, 62 homes were destroyed and 250 neighbors were left homeless. "Not at 62nd and Pine! This is unbelievable! This is civil war in a residential neighborhood," Nutter said as we crouched behind a parked car not far from where he grew up at 55th and Larchwood.

For those of us who witnessed it live, the MOVE Confrontation on May 13, 1985 was like being at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. We saw the unimaginable become smoking reality before our eyes. (That's the aftermath above.) And as we hid in fear from police bullets, Nutter was the first one I heard to express the larger emotion that I was feeling -- outrage. How could this be happening in my city?! On 5/13 I had no idea who Michael Nutter was, let alone that one day he'd be running for mayor. But I do know that day changed both of our lives forever. I continued doing what I was doing, writing a daily newspaper column, but something had changed. I was obsessed with the injustice I saw that day and in the days, months and years that followed. I raged and I bellowed in print. Some readers say I became a common scold. And maybe I was.

After 5/13 Nutter returned to his job as a City Council legislative assistant. Five years later he was elected Councilman for the Fourth District where he served for 15 years and where he earned a reputation as being the Napoleon Dynamite of Philadelphia politics, a hard-working, principled, unbending nerd with an oddly off-putting manner. He suffered fools poorly, including the mayor, Napoleon's Uncle Rico, another oddly off-putting personality. Watching John Street and Michael Nutter battle each other over legislation they both supported was blessed comic relief for City Hall observers, especially those who like to smoke in bars. But Nutter was usually on the enlightened side of the issues, as unpleasant as the right side of history can be to those on the losing side. Because of that there are some who accused Nutter of being a common scold. Maybe he was. And maybe he has his reasons.