Who's on trial here?

Exhibit A (the story)

In case you hadn't heard, yesterday here in Philly a pregnant woman was beaten to death in the streets. That happens about once a week around here, usually it wouldn't even make the front of the paper...but what made this different is that she was with her boyfriend and attacked by her ex-boyfriend and 3 or 4 of his best friends at 2 in the afternoon outside of traffic court in front of dozens of bystanders. Yeah, I know, right? However, the uproar about this is that her life could have been preserved if actions had been taken by certain persons. Obviously the attackers are guilty, but there are more fingers to be pointed here.

The story goes that she was in court, but making a quick trip to the car with her current boo to get some more money to get their car out of impound when Ex and Crew showed up and...yeah. It's pretty fucked up even for Philly, and the story has polarized the citizens of the city and since this is twentyleven and news travels instantly (you probably read this on your Google homepage or something before I even heard about it) the country. It seems to touch a number of issues and a lot of judgements are being thrown around. So, in this terribly tragic event, I gotta ask the question...who's on trial here?

Is it the bystanders? They seem to be taking the most abuse, with people claiming they were outraged that nobody had taken action during the attack. While it's a nice sentiment, I really wish those people would shut the fuck up because they're full of shit. (They even had the required news eyewitness interviews in which people there at the time lamented the downfall of civilization because nobody there intervened...uh, you were there too.) When people say "somebody" should have did something, they really mean "somebody else" should do something. If there's anything I hate, it's posturing...attending funerals of people you didn't like in real life, fake greetings around the office from people who will whisper about you when you're out of earshot, fake concern for your sickness from people who may wished you death earlier in the week...and this is it.

I mean, it ain't like this is the first time this has ever happened. Hey outraged Philadelphians...remember when that one guy got randomly beat with a hammer by that nutjob on the train and everybody was appalled that nobody helped and said "this will never happen again"? Remember that? Same city...similar situation...so either the exact set of people that formed unhelpful passengers on that train car are also the exact set of people that formed the unhelpful bystanders in this situation or people just like to talk the right-sounding shit. I lean toward the latter...and really, I don't blame them. I wouldn't expect anybody I don't know (and few people I do) to risk their life to save me from whatever peril may befall me...and nobody else really should either. I won't let them completely off the hook, I mean somebody could have called the cops or hell, went into the court, aka a building full of cops and calmly mentioned that somebody was losing their life outside...but to demonize the average person for staying in their lane is laughable. Let's move on.

Is it the boyfriend? I mean, they say he was with her around the time she got jumped by her ex and his henchmen (what kind of friends do you have that you can just hit them up and go "Yo, if you're not doing anything later we should go tune up my baby moms outside of traffic court...we can pick up some Burger King on me afterwards...what's up?) ...so what happened? Did he hide in a bush until it was over? Did he flee screaming with his hands flailing over his head when he saw the group approaching? Was he...part of it? Well, that's the funny thing here...nobody seems to know. All the reports mention boyfriend being WITH the victim at the time, but none mention anything after that. It's not clear what his role in this situation was...but he wasn't either confirmed defending his pregnant girlfriend or found severely beaten instead of her trying to fend off her assailants...so I suspect it was some ole bitch shit. I won't charge him with this yet, but I'm definitely keeping him around as a person of interest. Hmm...next suspect.

How about the police? Let's evaluate the scenario. Advanced security system including 2 cameras (that apparently nobody on site watches footage from...Toys R' Us has live surveillance but a city traffic court doesn't...hmm...) pointed directly at the action...check. Incident right outside of traffic court within 75 feet of innumerable cops (somebody can get beat to death outside of a courthouse and no cops are around, but let me go to the same courthouse and throw a candy wrapper down near the door and see how many blue suits appear) ...check. Having your entire job description be "protect and serve" yet consistently doing neither...check. Hmm...I think we may have our guilty party. (You knew I was gonna find some way to blame the cops...lol...)

I find it next to impossible to believe that NO police officers saw or heard this event happening (it's not like beating somebody to death is a quick, stealthy process...I'd imagine there was a 2 minute period with a lot of commotion) on a main street in front of a city building packed so full to the brim with cops it would make my bacon senses tingle if I walked past it...at 2 in the fucking afternoon. I don't believe it, and if it's true and that's what they try and claim, it's a severe failure of our police...and if I were the cops, I wouldn't even tell people that. That's just me though.

Whoever deserves blame for this young woman's death, really it's sad that this type of thing can happen, and in a perfect world it wouldn't...but we don't live there, we live in Philly (or wherever else you're reading this at). It can, does and did. It's always fucked up when it does, and this can cause feelings of anger and confusion at the state our society is in. Judgements are made during times like this...but before we render a verdict, we should always ask...who's on trial here?