ABC Local has posted a copy of the video, which was aired as part of an community effort to apprehend the assailant, who was at that time still at large.
WARNING: the video (which can’t be embedded) accompanying the news story contains graphic violence, and is disturbing to watch.
By this morning a man with an extensive record of criminal violence had been arrested in connection with the assault.
This might not have been a notable story — Philly is, after all, a notoriously violent city — except for one thing: according to the victim, the attacker was chanting in Arabic as he rained hammer blows down upon the young man, who distinctly heard the word “Allah” repeated.
This aspect of the story was included in the ABC article, but not in any of the later versions of the incident that I read this morning.
Here’s how ABC Local described the bizarre attack:
- - - - - - - - -
Police are asking the public for help captured a hammer-wielding attacker, who seemed to assault his prey for no apparent reason.
On Monday night, police released the video of the attack, in the hopes that someone can identify the man.
The attack happened back on Thursday at 12:15 a.m. onboard the SEPTA northbound Broad Street line.
The victim, 20-year-old Dewayne Taylor is seen dozing in his seat, listening to his ipod.
In the doorway, the assailant is standing with a young boy, about three to five years old.
He tells the child to sit down.
Then, he pulls out a large hammer out of a black and yellow book bag, and proceeds to pummel the victim.
After striking Taylor a number of times, the attacker grabs Taylor by the shoes and pulls him down to the floor, where the attack continues.
Then, the man throws Taylor off the train, where they struggle some more before the attacker disappears out of sight.
“According to the victim, the male continued to assault him and tried to throw him into the track area,” said Det. Kenneth Roach of the Philadelphia Police Dept.
Taylor told Action News last week that all throughout the attack, the man kept chanting something, and he distinctly recalled the word “Allah.”
Police were stunned that some 20 passengers onboard the train scattered, and did nothing to stop the attack.
“I think somebody should have helped that guy,” said Det. Roach. “I understand the guy had a hammer, but they outnumbered him by at least 10 to one.”
The alleged perpetrator was committed to a mental institution by his family as soon as they heard the news of what he had done. A smart move on their part.
Yes, it’s likely that this guy is simply a deranged psychopath who should have been on medication.
But why is it that so many mentally disturbed ultra-violent psychopathic loners take on the ideology of jihad to fuel their murderous rampages?
Just a coincidence, I suppose.
Hat tip: TB.
7 comments:
This is disturbing in too many ways to count.
That a man so deranged was in charge of a young child.
That the child appeared unperturbed by the violence, already unfeeling?
That no one lifted a finger to help. Are there no emergency strips in the subway car? Everyone in the video appeared to be able bodied black men. If there had been one middle-aged white lady, odds would have been better that she would have at least pulled whatever alarm was available.
That no one tried to help the victim even after the danger to themselves had passed.
Mean streets indeed.
One of the worst things ever done was to almost entirely eliminate mental institutions. The belief that the new anti-psychotic wonder drugs would be a panacea has been proven to be an utter failure. Sure the drugs work. But how many lunatics do you know that believe they are crazy and need medication?
These folks obviously cant monitor themselves and wind up in state prisons after killing someone. Or they live on our streets and menace innocent people. Bring back state mental hospitals with mandatory commitment in a big way. Believe me, my heart goes out to the insane (at least the non-violent ones). It must be a living Hell. Some in my own family suffer from bi-polar disorders. But enough is enough.
I started thinking about what happened in New Orleans during and after Katrina as well as the tribal massacres that take place in Africa even now.
Have whites have evolved beyond their tribalism to an altruistic urge to help (to the point of their own extinction)? And have blacks at least by their history in the United States been conditioned to expect to be helped? Is this what powers white lib and black votes to the Democrat party?
Man, what shocks me more is not the attack per se or the man singing in Arabic.
What shocks me more is that little child going with that man in a "trip", alone... what a family!
And the reaction of the man, here we no that when the "usual perpetrators" bring kids, nothing really bad will happen.
It's a crazy world.
Laine, in a real life situation, you don't know what to do.
This may not be a case of SJS ("Sudden Jihad Syndrome"), but rather a case of what I have called VJS ("Voluntary Jihad Syndrome").
The difference is that while SJS is motivated by Islamic jihad and hatred of Infidels, SJS erupts emotionally with no precursors of any prompting by Muslim groups or imams.
VJS, on the other hand, erupts when a Muslim feels compelled to "volunteer" for the Jihad based upon some calls to do violence -- whether those calls are specific or vague.
SJS would be more along the lines of a "Jihad of passion", whereas VJS would involve more premeditation.
Recently (I believe a month or two ago), it became known that Al Qaeda was calling upon Muslims to scale down their attacks and do smaller attacks of terror. When a Muslim does this without being specifically commanded to do so by a jihadist cell, he would be exhibiting VJS. (VJS can include SJS, in that a particular Muslims who psychologically snaps and goes postal may also find a felicitous synchronicity in having learned about a jihadist call to violence.)
Thus, any given Muslim may feel the need to "do his part" for the greater Jihad by simply generating terror in one small location.
Another case of VJS happened a couple of years ago, when two Muslims in Somalia, after hearing an Imam preach in the mosque telling his congregation to go out and kill Christians after the Pope had "insulted" Mohammed in his lecture at Regsberg, went out and shot an elderly nun in the back. For more on this, see my essay:
Saint Leonella
And don't forget, even a vicious attack on a single person on a bus can have reverberations as it becomes a news story. It has a terrorizing effect. But, of course, the idea is not merely to do one solitary attack on one guy, but to slowly over time have multiple small attacks in many different locations.
For more on this, see my blog essay:
VJS and Virginiatechism
As the title of my blog essay implies, I believe this Philadelphia hammer story also seems to have succumbed to the phenomenon of "Virginiatechism" (another of my cumbersome but apt coinages) -- namely, of the press and other authorities related to the case sweeping any connections to Islam under the rug: a cover-up -- as they seemed to have done with the school shooting at Virginia Tech many moons ago, and with the Greyhound bus beheader in Canada just a few weeks ago (and with many other similar stories over the years).
I am stunned that so few are discussing this video. A society so sick, that not a single witness - and there were at least a dozen - used a cell phone to call for help! There is so much more to this story.
Dag discusses history of SJS
unofficial transcript of ABC local report via YouTube
Dann Cuellar:
"Taylor says all throughout the attack, somewhere in the Spring Gardens section - the man kept chanting something. . ."
Dwayne Taylor speaks @:47:
"Something. Allah something, I'm not too sure. All I know it Arabic. I don't know when he did it"
Dann Cuellar @:53:
"But it was Allah, you remember that word"
Dwayne Taylor @:55 responds with an affirmative nod:
"Yeah."
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Thomas D. Scantling's Court Summary pdf
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The victim of the brutal hammer attack, Dewayne Taylor simply can't catch a break!
police sources told Fox 29 News the beaten subway rider has been victimized again -- this time by a petty thief.Someone picked up that phone and sold it on the street for about $150. That was caught on videotape as well, sources told Fox 29 News.
The alleged thief is seen on a surveillance tape after the 20-year-old beating victim, Dewayne Taylor, and his alleged attacker, 26-year-old Thomas Scantling, tumbled onto a SEPTA platform.
Slideshow: Man Pockets Cell Phone After Beating
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This attack was premeditated. He was visibly sane enough to calmly seat the boy on the train next to a perfect stranger. The attacker clearly prepared a defense by going to a mental institution and turn himself over to the police from there.
Any report that claims he attempted to hurt himself with the hammer is NONSENSE ON STILTS!
Watch that video again - he jostled quite a bit to get that hammer moving and throw that victim onto the platform to continue the attack. Any injury to himself is consequential to the attack.
As for the family 'claiming' to have turned him in . . .ha ha ha . . .pull the other one.
If they believed he was such a danger, why was he left alone with a five year old child? Where is child protective services on this? That precious child's entire family should be investigated for putting him in such an incredibly dangerous and avoidable situation. If they knew Thomas D. Scantling had mental issues, they are criminal in their negligence.
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Philly is a town where the tools of self-defense are illegal, which makes Jihad Syndrome especially effective. I doubt the attacker would have escaped in Texas.
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