Posted on 02/15/2008 10:56:14 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
PHILADELPHIA -- A teenager riding SEPTA home from school said Wednesday she was attacked by a group of teenage girls over french fries, and wanted to thank the good Samaritan she said stopped the beating.
The 16-year-old girl, who was not identified, told NBC 10 News she knew others had been attacked on SEPTA, but said she had no idea she would be the next victim.
"It was just astonishing to me that many girls would come after just the three of us," she said. "I didn't think that was possible that me and my friends would be jumped on a subway station in a public place. I thought there would at least be help around somewhere."
The girl and her friends are students at Philadelphia Girls High School, and got on the Broad Street Subway on Tuesday after school. It was the next stop, which was at Broad and Logan, that 12 girls they didn't know got on, the girl said. One knocked french fries out of her friend's hand.
"Then four girls attacked me," the girl said, "pulling my hair and just grabbing it, swinging my head around and pounding on my head."
With no SEPTA help in sight, NBC 10 News reported, the girl said the assault would have continued if it wasn't for an unarmed vigilante.
"A lady who was sitting on the train near us decided enough was enough," the girls said. "She reached into her purse a little bit and moved her hand around as if she had a weapon. She's screaming at the girls to back up, and the girls yielded."
The 12 girls sprinted out of the SEPTA train at Broad and Erie, police said. The only description the victims had was that the attackers all wore shirts from Hope Charter School.
The girl's mother said the only SEPTA officer her daughter found was on the platform.
"I truly hope that this will wake SEPTA up and have them put more officers on the trains," she said. "Not on the platforms, but on the trains themselves."
Personally, I think we should spend money to colonize Mars. I'm just sayin' ...
One hand knocked her friend out with french fries. She reached into her friend's purse and pulled out french fries when things got out of hand. One knocked french fry handed her out. French fries are better.
If it were DC, they would have arrested the girl for having French fries on the Metro.
It’s the “City of Brotherly Love”, not “Sisterly Love”.
An unarmed one, at that.
Must have been the early 1990s, I was waiting for the subway at Harvard Square station to go back to the office one late morning. An old drunk was making fun of a blind panhandling "singing" "musician", and yadda, yadda, yadda, an old lady started rummaging in her purse, saying she had a gun.
A woman that wasn't chased away by the noise, er, "singing", moved the drunk away from the panhandler. "I don't want him shot, I just want him to go away" said the panhandler.
The girl and her friends are students at Philadelphia Girls High School,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Girls High is the highly competitive academic government school for the city. It is very prestigious.
All these fast food joints with the reconstituted potato fries that are like fried mashed potatos are gross. They can really put a fella (or fellett) on edge, and you know, if you see somebody enjoying some of those really good, thick, hot, salty fries, well, it can just... MAKE YOU WANT TO LASH OUT!!! God I feel like smashing my keyboard with my fist just thinkin' about it!!!
Owl_Eagle
”You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being”
Philly has been plagued with many atrocities lately. This is just one of a few. In the past week, a man has been murdered and another woman beaten and robbed. I can relate closely to this french fry story as I ride the Broad Street Line from Logan in the morning to center city and back daily. It’s come to the point if you don’t arm yourself with something that can maybe buy you a few seconds to get away from these roving packs of criminals you may not get away alive. It’s bad yet no one seems to care. The media will only play a few seconds and drop it.
I personally do not think anyone really cares about the broad street line at all. It’s a damn shame because when I get on in the am.. I mostly see niced dressed people heading off to center city to work.. We may live in a crappy area, most of us do not live here because we want to, just can’t afford to get out right now. But.. the subway is no longer safe. It’s not friendly, and it’s definately biased. I am A minority in a majority here.
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