This morning, as always, I got up, made coffee, and turned on the news. As the newscaster listed the top stories of the morning he said, "An attack on SEPTA has left one man dead" and their B roll showed a number of police officers at a familiar center city EL stop apparently looking for clues.
Curious, since I frequent this EL stop I sat to watch the story. They kept referring to it as a "deadly attack". The banner underneath all of the people interviewed said "Deadly SEPTA attack." The reporter kept referring to "the deadly attack occurred"
And then... the SEPTA police officer went on the camera and explained that four teenage boys began harrassing a starbucks employee on his way home at 3 p.m. They "slapped" him in the face four times, and the man died of a heart attack.
Did these boys committ assault? Yes.
Did they steal his Ipod? Yes.
Did they kill him? Well... that's a gray area. But it's center city. The boys were black, the man white... so yes according to the police.
I'm also bothered by the fact that no one on the platform bothered to help the guy.
Ah the news...
I'm late for work.
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I believe the wonderful Jim Moran from the department of health was quoted in today's paper as saying the COD was a heart attack AND blunt force trauma....so I guess they did technically kill him.
I'm kind of gray on this whole story. I definitely feel you that the media likes to jump on black-on-white crime and crime committed by kids. But I think this one has the added allure of being committed randomly and in broad daylight. Those are the two components gripping me.
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