Subway attack was to amuse, police say

[Mugu]

By Barbara Boyer, Sam Wood and Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writers

The four teenagers who ambushed Sean Patrick Conroy in a subway concourse Wednesday chose their victim at random and attacked him for no other purpose than to amuse themselves, police said yesterday. "He just happened to be walking in front of them and they picked him out," said Homicide Lt. Melvin Williams.

The District Attorney's Office said Kinta Stanton, 16, of the 4900 block of North Smedley Street in the Logan section of the city, was arraigned yesterday afternoon on murder and conspiracy charges. Officials will seek to try Stanton, a 10th grader at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia with a clean record, as an adult. He was being held without bail.

Police last night were searching for three of his classmates who they said participated in the 2:35 p.m. attack on the Market-Frankford Line concourse at 13th and Market Streets. The four students, police said, were truant from school when they went after the 36-year-old Starbucks manager, who yesterday was described by some who knew him as "cheerful" and "meek and mild."

Police yesterday discounted robbery as a motive, and said the youths apparently launched the attack on a lark.


Complete article at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/20080328_Subway_attack_was_to_amuse__police_say.html

[ThomWV]

1. Hard to immagine, a violent inner city murder and no gun involved.

How could that be?

[flvegan]

2. 4 more young monsters in our midst.

[MUAD_DIB]

4. Prehaps they will find amusment behind bars.

[peace13]

3. Video game..life is nothing but a video game to them. n/t

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[peace13]

10. Nice!

Do you play a lot of violent drop to kill games hour after hour as well. Really your unkind response is very inappropriate here or anywhere.

Edited to add... I wonder why the Army uses such games to real the young people in. The experts on violence. Go figure.

[YOY]

16. Actually the Army does indeed use video games to enhance recruitment and it doesn' t work.

They have not seen any increase in enlistment in gamers at all. NONE. The ads they make are jokes. The games they make are jokes. Gamers actually make fun of the ads that try and tell gamers to "try the real thing." As if there was no difference in reality and games in our minds...they may be "experts on violence" but they cannot seem to twist reality and warp common sense too far.

So, repeat after me: THERE IS NO F***ING CONNECTION BETWEEN VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES AND REAL VIOLENCE.

People have tried a ton of times to prove a connection and there is not a goddamn one. NOT A GODDAMN ONE. The best they could do was that it "increases aggressive thoughts"...SO DOES WATCHING GODDAMN SPORTS MATCHES OR VIOLENT MOVIES!

There is an asshole of an attorney names Jack Thompson...a fundie that wants to save the kids from his asshattery...he's now being DISBARRED as he pulls the same mentality out time-and-time again in court. The mentality that there is a connection. THERE IS NONE. Look him up if you want.


If you had your hobby continually insulted as some scapegoated corrupter of the youth by people who have never played a game ever time-and-time again you would be pretty unkind in your response too!

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Furthermore, there is no f***ing connection between this tragic story and video games.

By comparison, there were no GUNS involved either! So bitching about guns is moot too!

Got it?

Now think before you post.

[peace13]

18. Goodbye...forever.

[YOY]

19. Yeah...that's how to win an argument when you've got nothing.

Stick your head in the sand and hit ignore.

But we were becoming such quick friends!

and THANKS FOR DELETING MY POST POINTING OUT YOUR COMPLETE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE!

[mainegreen]

5. Lets hope they get life w/out possibility of parole.

Because sometimes it really should be about punishment and not rehabilitation.

[Forrest Greene]

8. Not To Quibble Unnecessarily

...but I think we'd be talking about "justice," not "punishment."

[mainegreen]

9. Can't it be both?

But yes, it should be justice first.
:thumbsup:

[Forrest Greene]

11. Sometimes It Is Both

Not often enough... I suppose one difficulty is we all have different ideas about who should receive justice first. Not to mention the form justice should take. Though I'm sure few would disagree that the victim in this case is owed one whole hell of a lot of justice.

[Ordr]

6. Will there be hate-crime charges brought against the perpetrators in this case?

I can't imagine why there wouldn't be.

[GoneOffShore]

14. Why would you say this?

Any evidence in the article that it was a "hate crime"?

I certainly didn't see any, but perhaps your reading comprehension skills are greater than mine. Or perhaps you have a telepathic connection with the perpetrators?

There have been attacks after school hours all along the Broad Street line and have targeted people from all groups.

So why do you think it was a "hate crime"?

[slackmaster]

12. Sounds like A Clockwork Orange

:scared:

[seemslikeadream]

13. Ah, this is a thing that I'll leave up to you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Py5I8Z-aM0



The sheep's in the meadow
The cow's in the corn
Now is the time for a child to be born
He'll laugh at the moon
And cry for the sun
And if it's a boy he'll carry a gun
Sang the crow on the cradle

And if it should be that this baby's a girl
Never you mind if her hair doesn't curl
With rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
And a bomber above her wherever she goes
Sang the crow on the cradle

The crow on the cradle
The black and the white
Somebody's baby is born for a fight
The crow on the cradle
The white and the black
Somebody's baby is not coming back
Sang the crow on the cradle

Your mother and father will sweat and they'll save
To build you a coffin and dig you a grave
Hush-a-bye little one, never you weep
For we've got a toy that can put you to sleep
Sang the crow on the cradle

Bring me my gun, and I'll shoot that bird dead
That's what your mother and father once said
The crow on the cradle, what can we do
Ah, this is a thing that I'll leave up to you
Sang the crow on the cradle
Sang the crow on the cradle

[GoneOffShore]

15. And we continue to glorify warriors

and the cult and myth of the "Noble soldier".

Until we stop this will continue.

[WildEyedLiberal]

20. What does that have to do with jumping an innocent guy in a subway?

I don't know ANYONE who equates being a "warrior" or a "noble soldier" with brutally assaulting an unarmed and innocent bystander. Do you really think those kids were trying to be "warriors" or "noble"? Please show me where this behavior is considered anything other than criminal evil thuggery by anyone.

[GoneOffShore]

21. I was responding to the posting of Crow on the Cradle

And the camo picture that accompanied it.

[WildEyedLiberal]

22. Sorry, I misunderstood

I don't see what the pic of the kid in camo has to do with this particular OP, but I see where you were coming from. My bad.

[SteveM]

24. "It's the same ol' tale that the crow told me, way down yonder by the Sycamore tree...

"We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected." Thoreau, Walden.

"Suppose a man runs amuck and goes furiously about, sword in hand, and killing anyone that comes in his way, and no one dares to capture him alive. Anyone who despatches this lunatic will earn the gratitude of the community and be regarded as a benevolent man." Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers, Navajivan Pub. House, 1960.

That first verse was sung by Johnny Horton, 1960.

Did you know that women constitute the fastest growing demographic among gun owners? Your poem is good.

[Blue_Tires]

17. now they have the rest of their lives to think about it....

i certainly hope the amusement value was 'worth it' to them:sarcasm:

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. Life in prison with no possibility of parole

Send them to the hardest, nastiest lockup in the state. "Children" my ass. They forfeited their right to be considered children when they savagely murdered a totally innocent man.