Philadelphia has been ground zero for racially motivated black on white hate crime attacks for years.
UPDATE 11/20 4 p.m.A second woman has come forward alleging that the same man in this photo attacked her at the Erie station on the Broad Street Subway last Friday at approximately 1 p.m. The 25-year-old Temple Medical School student, who asks that we not use her name, says that he punched her in the face but did not take anything from her. He also allegedly jumped on her back. “I was wearing my bag across my body,” she says. “I’m not sure if he was trying to steal anything or not.”
The Washington Square West resident says that her face is still sore but that any visible swelling has gone away. She didn’t take a photo, but Septa Police have a video of the attack. The victim says that she is certain it is the same man. “It’s the same face, same facial expression, and it’s the same coat, hat and scarf that he was wearing,” she says.
ORIGINAL:Normally, crime victims in Philadelphia have to hope that there will be grainy surveillance images available to help police track down suspects, but one Philadelphian woman (who asked us to not use her name) has a decided advantage: a crystal clear photo that she took.
On Monday afternoon, the young woman–who works for one of Philadelphia’s largest corporations–was outside the Convention Center in Philadelphia taking photos with her Canon camera when a man allegedly punched her in the face in an apparent attempt to steal the camera. Not only did she manage to hold on to the camera, but she also got a photo of her alleged assailant, seen above.
“I was taking a photo when he punched me in the jaw,” she told me on Tuesday night. “I turned around and he turned around at the same time, and I took a series of photos. He was in a few photos I had taken a few minutes prior to the assault as well.”
“He was at the street corner of 13th and Arch, and I was taking photos of the Convention Center,” she says of the second photo. “I was walking slowly while I was taking photos. He walked past me as did the woman in the red jacket. He was walking near her for about a block. A few minutes later as I approached Broad Street is when he assaulted me.”
As she put it on Facebook, where she shared the photos: “He punches like a granny, and was dumb enough to turn back around and walk by thinking his granny punch knocked me out so I could take his photo. Cheese!”
She has a sore jaw but is otherwise uninjured and has filed a report with the police. Some online commenters have suggested that this is an example of the much-dreaded “Knockout Game,” but police told her they suspect he actually had a motive other than pure stupidity and malevolence: theft.
A Philadelphia woman was taking pictures outside the Philadelphia Convention Center. She happened to snap this shot of a man eyeing a woman in a red coat. Moments later the same man allegedly assaulted the woman who took the picture. The photographer victim says the perp even stood there long enough for her to take a second picture of him. Once the pictures were made public, another female victim said she was attacked by the same thug. Neither woman had anything stolen, suggesting that the assaults were purely motivated by hatred. The second attack was also captured on surveillance video, but police have not released it. The Philly media is censoring the race of the two victims. However the first photograph shows the thug looking at a white female. Philadelphia has been ground zero for racially motivated black on white hate crime attacks for years. In the past, this website has published maps and urged all whites and Asians tourists and shoppers to avoid certain areas of the city. Philadelphia police are downplaying the attacks as “attempted robberies” and denying a racial motive.