Police released more information on the robbery and assault that took place on Monday night, shortly after 10 p.m., near 45th and Osage Ave. A 23-year-old man was walking in the area and noticed a group of five young males walking on the other side of the street. The males ran up to the young man, punched him, knocked him to the ground and continued punching him repeatedly. They ran away when a car pulled over to help. The attackers took the victim’s cell phone, according to police.
The young man, a Spruce Hill resident, suffered a chipped tooth and other injuries. The investigation continues.
July 7th, 2015 at 3:57 pm
Descriptions of the assailants?
July 7th, 2015 at 5:57 pm
Did anyone check the zoo to see if some wild animals broke free? Sounds like animals to me
July 7th, 2015 at 7:04 pm
Wild Turkey, please don’t insult animals. They attack when cornered, to protect or for food.
This crap with these groups of “young males”, usually all boys in their teens, have been wilding through the neighborhood for the past few years. Every single summer. Where are their parents? Why are they allowing their kids to be wandering the streets at 10pm?
July 7th, 2015 at 10:21 pm
I want to have sympathy for those who are less fortunate than many who live in our neighborhood. But it’s so hard. I just can’t understand how there is an excuse for hurting another person. No matter what.
July 8th, 2015 at 8:17 am
Thank goodness for the new 8 Limbs Muay Thai Kickboxing Academy that opened at 46th & Baltimore above the car repair garage. I just started taking classes there and feel better prepared to defend myself in this type of situation.
July 8th, 2015 at 10:15 am
Hi Strongforu,
I’ve been a member of 8 Limbs since the gym opened in March, and not once in my 4+ months there has any coach advocated using Muay Thai to try and defend yourself against a vicious mob. Physical self-defense is something you use as a last resort; if you’re facing five opponents, you comply with demands or you run. This guy didn’t even have those options – he was JUMPED. He couldn’t defend himself. Saying you take classes to prevent “this type of situation” is completely ridiculous and, as much as I’m tired of this phrase, victim blaming.
July 8th, 2015 at 2:57 pm
Tell us something about their appearance and age, please. How is anyone going to identify them or look out for them?
July 8th, 2015 at 2:58 pm
I’m an expert in all the martial arts!
July 8th, 2015 at 3:31 pm
The descriptions are too vague to be of any use. We’ll update if any more details are released.
– Editor
July 8th, 2015 at 4:14 pm
So, according to the editors, we should be on the lookout for young males. On the night of the attack, between 9-9:30pm I saw 5-6 young males in the alley behind the 4600 block of Osage. No way to know if they were connected.
July 8th, 2015 at 4:16 pm
@Neighbor, there’s no reason to believe that these kids were either “less fortunate” or, if so, that had anything to do with it. They didn’t just rob someone for money…they assaulted him as a gang. There definitely was more to this than money. They were out to get their kicks.
July 8th, 2015 at 11:11 pm
Yeah, let’s cut the liberal crap and get progressive about this. If you see people in your neighborhood who obviously have no good reason to be where they are, such as congregating in an alley or on your neighbors’ porch when they’re on vacation, don’t turn your head (but don’t get hurt either). And if someone comes up to you at the Sunoco and “asks” for money to pump your gas report it to the management.
PS Tacitly justifying mob violence by blaming it social conditions alone is insulting to the vast majority of low-income victims of this system who would never take out their very real frustrations on fellow citizens.
July 9th, 2015 at 10:23 am
The descriptions were too vague ? What does that mean ? I think I know what it means….it means that the group was a bunch of black guys/teenagers but West Philly Local doesn’t want to identify anyone by race.
Great job reporting the news once you’ve taken out details that you feel might offend. Thanks. That kind of hard hitting reporting will keep myself and the others that live on Osage safe.
July 9th, 2015 at 2:04 pm
Mike, thanks for the reply. But remember, you are a blogger, not a crime expert. Why not report all of the facts and leave it to your audience to determine if the info is useful or not? An informed community is a safer community.
July 9th, 2015 at 2:43 pm
@Pat and others.
I think this is a useful discussion. I am certainly not a crime expert, but I do consider myself somewhat of a journalism expert. I have been a reporter and editor for 20 years in several countries for several news organizations and I teach journalism at a university in the city. It is common journalistic practice to leave descriptions that are vague and unhelpful out of crime stories. Such simplistic reporting lays the groundwork for profiling and doesn’t help in narrowing the search for suspects.
We report descriptions that make people identifiable and we have done so in the past when they are available. We report details, including racial identifiers such as complexion and hair style, when they are useful – same with things like tattoos, distinctive articles of clothing etc. They weren’t available in this case.
So that’s the way it works and has always worked on the site.
For a similar discussion, check out the comment section from the article below, which details how a young man was apprehended based on a photo that showed his jacket.
https://www.westphillylocal.com/2014/10/29/mid-morning-mugging-near-49th-and-windsor/