On the night of October 21st, 2016, a ‘Flash Mob’ of 150 juveniles planned to meet up on Temple University’s campus right around the area of Cecil B. Moore and North Broad with no other reason but to attack local university students. Concluding with four arrests, numerous injuries and a lot of security and police force, that night turned out very un-expectantly for many students at the University.
On that very night, I found myself across the street from all the chaos very confused as to what was going on. From what I saw, there were a huge number of teenagers running up and down main blocks on N. Broad St, more police cars and sirens then I have ever seen before and many students looking at each other thinking of what could be possibly going on. At 9:26pm, the whole student body at Temple University received a TU Alert stating “Increased police activity due to large groups of juveniles along Broad St. on Main Campus. Police are responding. Avoid the area”. After reading that report, I felt a bit more informed about what took place. It wasn’t until the following day when a more descriptive report was released did I begin to feel a bit un-easy.
According to the Washington Post, the following details were realists about the night of the 21st.
"The crowd moved down the street, several smaller groups of youths started attacking random pedestrians, many of them university students who were returning to campus from a Temple football game across town, according to the university’s independent student paper. The teenagers punched, kicked and tackled people indiscriminately, police said, fanning out into the North Philadelphia neighborhood and assaulting passersby over the next few hours. As of Monday, police had taken four kids between 14 and 17 years old into custody in connection with the attacks, which authorities compared to “flash mobs” that have cropped up in the city in recent years, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer".
Beside the overall attacks that occurred on campus that evening, a particular attack of a female student became a huge topic nation wide.
"Joe Lauletta of Holland, Penn., said his 19-year-old daughter was badly beaten after the mob broke out. In a Facebook post that went viral, he wrote that she had just emerged from the subway after watching the Temple football game when a group of 30 to 40 teenagers swarmed around her.
“Every part of her body is badly bruised,” Lauletta wrote. “It makes me cry just thinking about it.”
In an interview later with WTXF, he said his daughter was released from the hospital with no broken bones but still had cuts and bruises covering her body.
“She went down in the fetal position and then they pinned her,” he said. “Her back is really, really cut up.”
Police said two of the people who attacked Lauletta’s daughter were arrested and charged with aggravated assault, robbery and criminal conspiracy, as the Inquirer reported".
After reading into the entire incident that occurred that night, many thoughts came to my mind. As a young, female adult who attends a university of 34,000 people in the major city of Philadelphia, I have always been cautious of my surroundings. Whether I am walking in broad day light or later at night, I have gotten in the routine of taking out my earbuds to allow myself to have full attention of what is taking place around me. If I know I will be by myself late at night, especially now living off campus, I will either pay for an Uber back to my apartment or call one of parents and stay on the phone with them until I find myself back safely.
I can see why people have questioned my safety here at school, especially after this event occurred, I am confident in saying this. Was this something I expected to occur? Not necessarily. I was more surprised then anything to find out all of the details that came along with it. Has it made me scared to be a student here now at Temple University? No. Has it made me more aware of my surroundings? Absolutely.
After receiving more information from Temple and the Philadelphia Police that the same type of event would occur again during the weekend of Halloween, that is when I felt unsettled for the first time ever since arriving here on campus my first day of freshman year. Did that stop me from having a great weekend? No way. After discussing it with my roommate, we knew that our best bet would be to plan ahead of time on how we could be the most safe this weekend. For us, that meant looking out for each other as well as everyone else we hangout with, taking an Uber anywhere we chose to go to during the night and never allowing anyone to walk alone. Thankfully, due to the increased security and police force that was placed at our University all weekend, no attacks occurred after the one on the 21st.
All I can say is this, when I committed to Temple University, many responses I got referred to the danger that came with Temple University and the location of Philadelphia. Did that stop me from coming here? N-O! Now it is my second year here and I could not be happier with my decision of becoming a Temple Owl!! I have had the best year and half thus far and I am beyond ready to see what the next 2 and half years have in store! Yeah, crime does occur every once in awhile whether on campus or on the outskirts. But there is no safe place in this world. According to the President of Temple University, as said in an email following the attack that occurred that weekend, "Last year a published report showed that Temple is one of the safest schools in the region." Every college campus undergoes some issues regarding crime. As a student, you just need to know how to practice self safety and know what to look out for. Once that is taken care of, you know that you have done the best you could have done to protect yourself and the ones around you!
