Yesterday afternoon, I found myself debating whether to bring flowers or food to the hospital. My friend Emily is in Hahnemann with a broken leg, an injury she sustained on Saturday night around 10 p.m. when she, her boyfriend, and several of our mutual pals were assaulted as they walked the two blocks from 15th and Green streets to the subway entrance at Broad and Spring Garden streets. In a random, shocking and unsettling act of violence, an angry group of about 100 unprovoked teenagers began throwing them to the ground and beating them.
Just a few days after 23-year-old Stephen Lyde was sentenced to 20 years for stabbing Thomas Fitzgerald during a May 2009 flash mob, the rioting of young Philadelphians has hit close to home for me.
Unfortunately, Philadelphia has become notorious for these violent events. In a March 2010 article, the New York Times called flash mobbing “a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls” and noted that while flash mobs are not unique to our city, “they have been more frequent here than elsewhere.” A year after that article was published, police shut down LOVE Park for four hours after rumors of a flash mob were reported. Until last night, it seemed law enforcement had found a way to control the problem.
As I walked to the hospital, I wondered, How does something like this happen? It wasn’t that late! There was a group! She wasn’t alone! It was less than two blocks from her house!
I arrived at the hospital with a brightly colored bouquet and joked with Emily about how she’d once crocheted a wall-hanging reading “f**k cancer” for our friend who battled lymphoma.
She was doped up on morphine and may need surgery. Her boyfriend is so badly bruised that a zig-zagging imprint from the bottom of a sneaker was visible on his forehead more than 18 hours after he’d been assaulted. Three others sustained injuries and are recovering at home while several more witnessed the attack but somehow managed to avoid major injuries.
After the hospital visit, I realized there are no answers to why this happened and there is no lesson in this story. This random act of violence offers no opportunity to say “don’t travel late at night” or “don’t walk alone” or “be aware of your surroundings.”
The only moral I’ve been able to glean is this: F**k flash mobs.
Now, if only I knew how to crochet.
June 27th, 2011 at 9:34 am
June 27th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
June 27th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
You don’t fight a disease with curse words, you fight it with medicines or surgery or other types of treatment.
And similarly, the police or the city’s civic leadership need to take some sort of action to stem the flash mob tide and prevent other people from getting hurt or killed by sociopaths.
June 27th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
As soon as I walked out the door it sounded as if a riot was going on. I looked down the street and halfway up Green St., between Broad and 15th, there was a huge commotion. I commented to my girlfriend that there must be a big gang fight going on.
Right then, our friend came to the corner and I told her and my girlfriend to wait on our front steps while I went to check it out.
By that time, the police had arrived and there was a small group of people (your friends) who were distraught and surrounded by cops. North of them on Broad were HUNDREDS of people and South of them were another hundred or so.
Trust me, the 50-100 number that is being thrown out is way too low. I’d say there was a minimum of 350.
The fact that it took phone calls to get the attention of police is beyond amazing to me, especially considering the mob formed North of Temple and walked all the way down Broad St.
Also, I’m far from a racist, but I think it’s worth reporting that the entire mob was black and the people who were randomly attacked were all white.
I understand that the paper doesn’t want to scare people, etc., etc., but this whole event was severely unreported. Facts are facts and should be reported as such. What this was was a huge mob of angry black youths intent on battering white people, and your friends just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And more importantly, the police should be under close scrutiny for allowing this to happen. How is a group of hundreds, walking down Broad St. of all places, able to assault and batter people before police finally step in? This group should’ve been surrounded by police from the moment they formed miles North of where these attacks occurred.
June 27th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
June 27th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
June 27th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Wrong-o. “Hate for another race” is why this happened, and the lesson is “fight back — if possible — with a concealed firearm.” I understand tha it’s a serious responsibility to carry, but would you rather be maimed for life or dead because a gang of “youths” jumped you? I opt for carry.
June 28th, 2011 at 5:13 am
Your friend was almost murdered, not “randomly,” but because she is white, by a racist, black lynch mob. Don’t you care enough about her to tell the truth? As the previous commenter noted, this was anything but a “random” attack. It’s bad enough to be brutalized just for the crime of breathing while white, but if you do nothing to tell the truth about what happened and demand justice, you are complicit in the evil. Doesn’t your friend deserve better than that?
June 28th, 2011 at 5:38 am
June 28th, 2011 at 11:44 am
June 28th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
June 28th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
June 28th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
June 28th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
YOU are part of the problem. Don’t blame the actual perps, blame the SYSTEM. How about you raise your kids correctly and teach them to act like responsible members of society? That’s a good start.
June 28th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
In reality, though, you might hit one or two before being surrounded and killed yourself. So, rather than a foot print on your head or a broken leg, you’d be dead. Good job, dirty harry.
June 28th, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Hey everybody – Google “Flash Mobs” – the attackers usually have one thing in common and most of the victims have something else in common – but don’t tell Erica. She’ll be forced to squeeze out another column about “youths”.
June 29th, 2011 at 6:34 am
The F*** Flash Mob is cute for a child, but really, aren’t you and your friend adults? Shouldn’t we rationally discuse what’s happening with these Flash Mobs. From reading a few of these commentors it seems like alot of people are tired of pretending their aren’t blacks attacking whites.
June 29th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Short of that, set an example with the “unruly youths” that were arrested at the Sears store last week. Get a search warrant for their homes and confiscate any computer/phone in the home. Trace who else was involved in that mob and issue warrants for their arrest (and while you’re at it, issue warrants for the parents as accessories since it was likely their computers the kids used). They’re not setting these things up through word of mouth…they’re setting them up through word of VIRTUAL mouth. And “virtual mouth” is easily traceable.
June 29th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
June 29th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
This is disgusting. There’s no answer to why this happened? I’ll give you three:
- No moral decency, stemming from lack of parental guidance
- No sense of consequence on the part of the thug cowards
- A community of scared apologists LIKE YOURSELF who have an opportunity to stand up against this, but don’t
There’s no lesson to this story? How about this one: I am carrying my gun EVERYWHERE I go from now on.
Why don’t you think this behavior would have been tolerated in South Philly when there were mostly Italian owned homes and businesses? No. Because of racism? No. Because no one ever went into that community and attacked those people because they knew what the consequences would be.
If ANY group of ANY race is going around attacking people, the community needs to make a stand and do something about it. NOW. Either that or these punk cowards will end up taking over the town.
And if you think the government is going to step in and do something? Think again…these are all future voters in these major cities and districts.
June 29th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
In the long hot days and drawn-out twilights from late June through Labor Day we are sure to see more of this feral pack behavior. Well, to call it a pack is not quite right either, for dog packs have a single leader. These packs of Dad-less prey-hunting young adults rarely have a single leader, there are five or six behavior initiators in a pack of 30 or so.
It is troubling to see that Tim, on the scene at the time, called the mob size as many as 350. To control that size of mob without resort to deadly force takes a very serious effort and well-trained manpower. Our soldiers overseas in the face of such a mob, drop (shoot to kill) a few out of necessity, if they do not respond to loudspeaker warning and plain show of force.
“Peaceful” means of controlling such mobs, or suppressing roving bands (12, 30, 50, 100) involve serious martial presence (armed National Guard and armored vehicles) or equally serious trained police force applying aggressive crowd control (viz Greece now). None of that is pretty, or desirable.
But it does seem to be an immediate necessity.
An immediate necessity in the short term, that being through the start of of school in early September. But I doubt that officials will move to that now-necessary level until more mayhem, riot, vicious beatings like that of your friends and (G-d forbid) the murder of innocents happens.
Medium term we have to deal with this near-feral Dad-less generation of urban blacks. Prison is NOT a cure. Killing them all is an idiot’s reaction. We have to make do that which is necessary to instill “Fear of G-d”, that is respect for society and order, in them, and try as best we can to give them the tools necessary to control their own beasts.
Long term the problem is the lack of Dads, the male firm authority in a household day-by-day. The disrespect for the Dad in a family that is made horribly manifest by social worker and government welfare policies that promote single motherhood and penalize the formation of whole families. Four of five of urban black youth are born without Dads, real Dads married to the Mom. That’s the problem that must be solved. The solution is to strongly encourage marriage, and to penalize having children out of wedlock.
While that sounds harsh to the fatherless child, or the single mom, the current policies are FAR harsher — look what results. The single moms and fatherless children have it far worse, they become feral and have almost no healthy role models in their social groups.
June 29th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Look for more of the same from the ghetto thugs this summer.
June 29th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I and a buddy are working on an app that catches these flash mobs in their planning stages and then tweets out to US Patriots in the area wherever it is to go meet up with them armed and ready to roll if the cops don’t get to them first to save them. Then we wait for them to emerge with the goods and mow em down like grass.
June 29th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
June 29th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
It’s called Cognitive Dissonance.
June 29th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
June 30th, 2011 at 2:10 am
June 30th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
But shame on you, Erica. After the traumatic experience your friend went through, all you can say is “f–k flash mobs”? Why don’t you demand the police have a better strategy for dealing with these sort of riots? You haven’t helped your friend at all
June 30th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
They get gain insight on the ways to to lie, cheat, and sink the world.
July 1st, 2011 at 8:35 pm
July 2nd, 2011 at 8:33 pm
July 5th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
July 7th, 2011 at 2:44 am
July 11th, 2011 at 11:14 am
In some horrible way there isn’t a solution. Society is crumbling. How long until a US city end up like Somalia, with butchered and raped people lay dying the in streets. How long after that until it spreads.
The politicans are to afraid to talk about it, the media is to liberal to address, the cops don’t have the manpower or backing to do anything, and the hipsters will blame everyone except the attackers feeling safe in their magic bubbles by attacking the whites afraid of the attacks (of course a quick google or youtube search will show asians and hispanics are also victims have similar groups of attackers).
Basically we’re living in Germany before the roundups but during the kristallnacht. We can’t trust the powers the be (look up Eric Holder’s “my people” quote and see what help law enforcement is) so trust yourselves and what neighbors you have.
If your state or city allow gun ownership consider getting one, but learn the laws of using it. You can still get sued in many areas by the rapists family for depriving them of his future earnings. A military supply store may sell military grade knifes (better then a butter knife).
Consider buying extra bottled water and food, and maybe have an emergency back of supplies in case you have to flee the area (just like you would if you lived in case of fire).
Yup, I’ve pretty much been thinking like a survivalist over the last few months. but for hipsters, laugh at us and when a flash mob is kicking in your head as your family watches, try to engage them in the movies of Quinten Tarantino, that will sway them to not cripple you.
August 4th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
So what we need to do is legally arm ourselves with licensed and permitted firearms. Take some lessons in tactical self-defense, and learn how to use that gun. Then when you go out to dinner in Center City, go armed. If cornered by a so-called “flash mob” of bullies and thugs you pull out your weapon, point it at the head of the fist punk; then you give fair warning that if he does not cease and desist, you will shoot him; if he does not stop, you then blow his effing brains out all over the sidewalk. Then the ask the crowd, “Who’s next?”
August 8th, 2011 at 1:03 pm