http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120130_Thugs_whup_up_on_cabbie__passenger.html
"IN A HORRIFIC assault in Center City on Saturday night, three teenagers who were spouting racial slurs pulled a man out of a cab to beat him. And when the cabdriver intervened to stop the assault, the teens turned their rage on him, police said yesterday.
About 8:25 p.m., a cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut streets when two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy approached and started calling the male passenger in the back seat racially derogatory names, police said.
The boys then threw an unknown liquid at the cab before they opened the door, pulled the passenger out and started to pummel him, police said.
When the cabbie got out of the car to see what was going on, the passenger ran away and the teens turned on the cabbie. They punched him in the face, kicked him and threw a liquid on him, police said.
Despite being outnumbered, the cabbie grabbed a tire iron from his trunk, at which time the teens ran away. The driver flagged down a police officer, and the three boys were arrested. They were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and related offenses.
The cabbie suffered an injury to his right eye and had abdominal and side pain, police said. The passenger remains unidentified.
Police said the three teens were black and the cabbie and passenger were white. Police did not immediately know whether the teens would or could face hate-crime charges.
According to police records, the cabbie worked for Liberty Taxi Co., but a dispatcher working there yesterday was surprised none of the drivers he'd spoken with were aware of the assault. Police declined to provide the name of the driver, so the dispatcher could not confirm whether he was an employee.
"This would be something that would be big news," the dispatcher said. "It would have been a highly charged moment that drivers would be talking about.""
When I read stories like this, I cant help but think about who should be held ultimately responsible for crimes like this, and if the right people WERE being held responsible, would things change? In a country where McDonald's is responsible for you spilling hot coffee on yourself, where GM is responsible for leasing a car to someone who got in an accident, where a drug company is responsible for 1 person having a bad reaction to a drug that saved 1000 lives........how is the government not held responsible for denying/limiting our constitutional right to defend ourselves? Since the cops can not clearly be there to protect us every time, how is this argument not made over and over again in lawsuit after lawsuit against local/state governments? If the enviro-nuts can bury an energy company to make political points, if unions can cripple companies in labor disputes or governments in recall elections, how come victims or senseless crimes and pro-2A organisations cant fight fire with fire and hold these liberal idealists responsible for willfully allowing such assaults to take place? And if they did, couldnt it change the tide in our favor? Theoretically, all it would take is one win to change things forever.
"IN A HORRIFIC assault in Center City on Saturday night, three teenagers who were spouting racial slurs pulled a man out of a cab to beat him. And when the cabdriver intervened to stop the assault, the teens turned their rage on him, police said yesterday.
About 8:25 p.m., a cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut streets when two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy approached and started calling the male passenger in the back seat racially derogatory names, police said.
The boys then threw an unknown liquid at the cab before they opened the door, pulled the passenger out and started to pummel him, police said.
When the cabbie got out of the car to see what was going on, the passenger ran away and the teens turned on the cabbie. They punched him in the face, kicked him and threw a liquid on him, police said.
Despite being outnumbered, the cabbie grabbed a tire iron from his trunk, at which time the teens ran away. The driver flagged down a police officer, and the three boys were arrested. They were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and related offenses.
The cabbie suffered an injury to his right eye and had abdominal and side pain, police said. The passenger remains unidentified.
Police said the three teens were black and the cabbie and passenger were white. Police did not immediately know whether the teens would or could face hate-crime charges.
According to police records, the cabbie worked for Liberty Taxi Co., but a dispatcher working there yesterday was surprised none of the drivers he'd spoken with were aware of the assault. Police declined to provide the name of the driver, so the dispatcher could not confirm whether he was an employee.
"This would be something that would be big news," the dispatcher said. "It would have been a highly charged moment that drivers would be talking about.""
When I read stories like this, I cant help but think about who should be held ultimately responsible for crimes like this, and if the right people WERE being held responsible, would things change? In a country where McDonald's is responsible for you spilling hot coffee on yourself, where GM is responsible for leasing a car to someone who got in an accident, where a drug company is responsible for 1 person having a bad reaction to a drug that saved 1000 lives........how is the government not held responsible for denying/limiting our constitutional right to defend ourselves? Since the cops can not clearly be there to protect us every time, how is this argument not made over and over again in lawsuit after lawsuit against local/state governments? If the enviro-nuts can bury an energy company to make political points, if unions can cripple companies in labor disputes or governments in recall elections, how come victims or senseless crimes and pro-2A organisations cant fight fire with fire and hold these liberal idealists responsible for willfully allowing such assaults to take place? And if they did, couldnt it change the tide in our favor? Theoretically, all it would take is one win to change things forever.