Monday, March 31, 2008

Sean Patrick Conroy

I spent today thinking how they beat you to death
In the middle of the day
In the middle of the city
In the middle of the platform
In the middle of your life

7 comments:

Chris the Hippie said...

I hadn't heard about that; I Googled it when I saw it on your blog. What a miserable thing! How absolutely terrible!

Good Lord, what's happening to us?

steakbellie said...

yeah, it just happened. There's some extra sting for me I think because it was 1 stop from mine in Philly and the guys my age.

The school kids here run in packs and go completely wild on the trains trying to out do each other.

The girls can be worse. A pack of 10 14year old girls overran me on the steps down to the station and I started to fall, before catching myself. A bunch of them started howling and this one girl was standing in front of me screaming "He Trip! He Trip!", but as if I wasnt even standing in front of her.

I was furious but powerless to do anything but growl.

Sometimes a pack of them will come onto a car and they will scream obsenities and hit each other knocking into old people and commuters that just want to go home. Adults will scold them, and they get 10 times worse in defiance, and say the most horrible things.

Chris the Hippie said...

When I think of stuff like that I understand why people want to own firearms. Is this a recent phenomenon, the kids running in packs on the trains? Or is this something that's been going on for a while?

Anonymous said...

Tragic. So damn tragic.

steakbellie said...

Yeah, it's pretty horrible. The murder rate has been climbing year after year here in Philly.

The kids have gotten out of control. Last year they set fires in the garbage cans inside the school on a daily basis. They beat up teachers, breaking one of their necks too.

The pack running on the trains has been going on but steadily getting worse over time. By cutting school and using their student passes, they are able to ride the trains all day and spread the crime out of West Philly.

I think the new game is called like "Catching the Body" They try to knock an unsuspecting person out with one punch. I think thats what was happening here with this guy, but they kept beating him.

We just have a new Mayor and are hopeful he can do something about this.

katrocket said...

Toronto used to have a relatively low murder rate, but it's skyrocketed lately due to gang activity - kids are driving down busy streets and shopping/work areas in broad daylight and shooting randomly at crowds of people on their lunch breaks. It's a very sick world we've made for ourselves, and I'm considering a new career as a heavily-armed crazy mountain hermit.

This poem really moved me.

Leonesse said...

I hope Kat has an extra room in her cave for me.