Posted on 04/02/2008 7:23:32 AM PDT by 2banana
'Mother's pride' is laid to rest By DAFNEY TALES & DAVID GAMBACORTA Philadelphia Daily News
LONG AFTER the final hymn had been sung and the last rose had been laid across her son's bronze casket, Sharon Conroy sat in her quiet home in Lansdowne trying to make sense of it all.
Her mind drifted through a steady stream of tender memories of her son, Sean Patrick Conroy.
She could see him as an eager, grinning Cub Scout, then as the kid who went to dinner and a movie with her every Friday night until it seemed uncool at age 15.
She remembered his spontaneous move to California after high school to become an animator for Disney, then his return to the Philadelphia area, where he matured into his "mother's pride," working as a mentor in North Philly and helping out with charities.
He found a job that he loved, running a Center City Starbucks, fell in love with the woman of his dreams and, at age 36, planned on a full and happy life. "This was the gentle man I was lucky enough to call my son," Sharon Conroy said.
Then it all fell apart on an underground SEPTA platform in Center City last Wednesday afternoon, when four teens inexplicably attacked Conroy's son, kicking and punching him until he had a fatal asthma attack, police said.
Police arrested Kinta Stanton, 16, a 10th-grader at Simon Gratz High School, and charged him as an adult with murder. Stanton has refused to identify the other youths, who also attend Simon Gratz and remain on the loose, a police source said.
Last night, people who answered the door at Stanton's home on Smedley Street near Griscom told a reporter that they didn't know him.
The fatal attack, which investigators said had been unprovoked, has incensed citizens across the city, from everyday SEPTA riders to Conroy's friends and relatives.
They wonder why no one has turned in the other teens, or what could have prompted them in the first place to attack an innocent guy who was known for his gentle, easygoing nature.
Through it all, Sharon Conroy said she remains calm in this tumultuous sea of anger and pain.
"It's not to say that I'm not angry," she said yesterday, hours after her son was buried at Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, in Marple Township. "But my son was a gentle person and would have wanted us to get all the facts."
Conroy said nearly 200 teary-eyed mourners packed St. Cyril's Church, in Lansdowne, for her son's funeral, and the funeral procession included 170 cars.
Starbucks employees were among the attendees, including Mike Rose, a district manager, who talked about Conroy as helpful and compassionate.
Old friends from his Cub Scout days showed up, and a former employer from California sent a two-page euology about how "gentle and polite" Sean Patrick Conroy was.
On Easter Sunday, Conroy became engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Stevany Johar. Yesterday, Johar released a statement through Sharon Conroy, which read in part:
"I still cannot accept his death in so many ways. Everything reminds me of him. Part of me still believes that he will come home, give me a kiss and also a hug like he always did."
In the week since Conroy's death, SEPTA's subway lines have been flooded with more than two dozen members of the Guardian Angels, the civilian watchdog group that was founded in 1979 in response to violence on New York's subway system.
"SEPTA riders are terrified," said Curtis Sliwa, founder and president of the organization. "These kids come on like a tsunami onto trains and trolleys and start acting wild."
The Guardian Angels will patrol the Broad Street line and the Market-Frankford El Monday through Friday, from 1 to 5 p.m., to address commuters' fears. *
Daily News staff writers Mensah Dean and Kirstin Lindermayer contributed to this report.
Obama probably CHEERS.
It was observed twenty years ago that the leading cause of death of young black men was/is young black men.
In NYC, you will get prosecuted for doing that, but it is still better to get 2 years in the Country Club (at worst) for carrying a concealed weapon to be, uh, dead.
Let's not generalize about "the black churches". There's a black church on my block and this is NOT what they preach. And plenty of predominantly white churches preach the same sort of crap in the context of "all white people are racist", "the US is evil/racist/imperialist/murdering innocent children in Iraq", etc. Wright's rantings were basically just enthusiastic agreement with the standard leftist party line that's popular among whites on US college campuses and in left-wing churches.
I have to say the Blacks I’ve known who are actually from Africa have been awesome guys.
I think this is an African-American problem. A lot of them have been taught to hate the man and to believe that Whitey has been holding them down. And if African-Americans commit crimes the MSM will usually act as their enabler and advocate.
CW2 Ping?
Too true, for both points. That site seems to be one affiliated with the David Duke white power type of scumbags, just as scummy as Jackson and Sharpton and their ilk. There is one telling video there, at the bottom is a clip from C-SPAN showing someone ID'd as a professor who is preaching to kill all white people. These folks I've mentioned, along with Wright, Obama, and their supporters are why we still have severe racial conflicts, and the governments do nothing to allay them.
Sad ping.
Could you give us the where, how, and why?
Please provide some details....
The news of youths roaming the transit system in Philadelphia was in the news long before this poor guy was killed. The new police chief and transit police were well aware of the roaming thugs. Bernerd Getz took care of business in NY. Obviously the police are unable or unwilling to protect innocent citizens. There may be one answer. License to carry.
I think so also. I expect rioting like LA during the 90’s if Obama loses the nomination. I wouldn't want to be living in Denver in August. The tension and hatred is seething just below the surface and boils over periodically. Get your ccw now if possible and if you live where thats impossible make a decision, “How much do I want to live”.
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