How a female journalist reacts to the black mob attack on her fellow journalists

As I said in the previous entry, the Berlin Wall of media silence is not crumbling yet, at least not in Philadelphia (though it has crumbled a bit in Charleston). Erica Palan writing in The Philly Post is so angry about the flash mob assault on her friend and fellow journalist Emily Guendelsberger that she uses the F word (spelled with asterisks). But she’s not angry enough to say anything of substance about what happened. In fact, the main point of her article is that she admits that she has nothing to say. After visiting her injured friend and her friend’s beaten-up boyfriend in the hospital, she writes, “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.’ “

Erica has nothing to say about the incident because, while she speaks freely about “flash mobs” and how much she hates them, she refuses to discuss their racial nature and racial motivation. Therefore, for her, “there are no answers to why this happened.”

F**k Flash Mobs
Teenage rioting hit close to home when my friends were randomly attacked at Broad and Green streets on Saturday night
Posted on 6/27/2011 at 7:30AM

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.

LA replies:

She wants to crochet because as a liberal writer living in liberal society she has nothing to say as a writer, because any true and real statements she might make about the things happening in her world are forbidden.

This is what liberals are reduced to when their liberal world starts to crumble: the “F” word and crocheting.

- end of initial entry -

Andrew H. writes:

How’s this for amusement

Erica Palan (friend of the flash mob victim) posts her F**k Flash Mobs post on The Philly Post blog at 6/27, 7:30 AM.

At 8:49 AM, another contributor to The Philly Post blog (a black guy named Michael Coard, you’ll love his picture which emanates smugness and has an “Empty Suit” quality) writes a post called “‘Stop And Frisk’ or Sloppy Risk?” which complains about cops profiling and frisking black guys for no good reason (no need to read the whole thing, you’ve probably virtually this exact same rant once a week for the past 30 years!). In the post Coard identifies himself “as an attorney and activist committed to legal equity for people of color”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 27, 2011 07:48 PM | Send