David in TN: There was another flash mob attack in Philadelphia Saturday night. A writer for The Onion named Emily Guendelsberger had her leg snapped and broken. Her boyfriend was sucker-punched and then kicked while on the ground.
A commenter [see below] to one of the articles said it was FAR worse than reports saying it was around 50 perps. He said there were around 350. This commenter said they were all black and the people attacked were always white.
F**K FLASH MOBS
BY ERICA PALAN
Teenage rioting hit close to home when my friends were randomly attacked at Broad and Green streets on Saturday night
Posted on June 27, 2011, at 7:30 a.m.
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.
N.S. As one commenter noted, the blogger, Erica Palan, was speaking in euphemism about “random” attacks, when the attacks were anything but. I posted the following message to her:
Dear Ms. Palan,
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?
Tim says:
June 27, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I live on the 1500 block of Green and somewhat witnessed this. My girlfriend and I walked out of our apartment to meet a friend at the corner of 15th and Green.
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.
F. Jones says:
June 27, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Erica, singling out white people is not “random attacks.” Those were hate crimes.
Call them what they are, and by God, yes, let’s call a SPADE a SPADE.
Enough with the politically correct self-censorship!
N.S. Note that Philly.com is simply refusing to permit readers to comment on any of the raceless mob stories.
Woman's leg broken, others hurt in Spring Garden mob attack
By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News
farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225
A WOMAN'S leg was broken and several other people were injured Saturday night when a large group of teens accosted pedestrians in Spring Garden, police and witnesses said.
Philadelphia police responded to two reports of pedestrians being assaulted by a large group of young people along Broad Street about 9:30 p.m.
One of those reports came from Emily Guendelsberger, 27, city editor for local arts and entertainment content for the Onion, the satirical newspaper and website. She was walking with seven friends on Green Street near Broad when they were accosted, she said. Guendelsberger, who remained hospitalized with a broken leg yesterday, declined to comment further.
A friend who was with her at the time, Daily News staff writer Molly Eichel, said that they were walking down Green Street when a group of teens was walking down Broad. "We heard kids yell, 'Run, run,' " Eichel said. "Some kid just came out of nowhere and punched my friend Charlie in the face."
Eichel said that when her group tried to run, about 20 teens chased them down the street. "They were kicking kids down and punching them when they were down," she said.
Two other friends sought treatment at area hospitals for facial injuries, Eichel said.
The only redeeming factor about the experience was that a few people realized the extent of Guendelsberger's injuries and tried to protect her, Eichel said.
From the hospital yesterday, Guendelsberger gave her protectors shout-outs on Twitter. "On the positive, a bunch of girls from the mob protected me from the boys trying to hit me and take my purse while I was on the ground," she wrote. "Also a car of women from out of town saw it going down, pulled over, and (I gather) circled around to protect me; wish I had gotten names."
According to the police report of the incident, Guendelsberger was "jumped" by 30 to 40 men who punched and kicked her numerous times. Police said they checked the area for surveillance but had no luck.
Shortly before Guendelsberger's assault, police said, they responded to another assault, about five blocks away at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue, of a 20-year-old man who said that he was attacked by a large group of men and women.
Police said that he was treated for a bruise and abrasion under his right eye.
Twitter users said that the mob ranged from 50 to 100 people and that participants not only assaulted people but also threw trash cans and lit fireworks.
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