The media is treating this as a modern Kitty Genovese story. The attacker here certainly has some similarities to Winston Moseley who murdered Kitty. But I don’t know that this is a bystander effect. I suspect the bystanders here were on the same page as the attacker.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: In a shocking incident, a woman was raped by a homeless man on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia this week in full view of passengers, who allegedly refused to help or even call 911. Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt of the Upper Darby Police Department said that the attack took place at around 10 pm on Wednesday, October 13, and was captured on surveillance video. The videos confirmed that other people were also present in the train car when the woman was attacked.

He added that investigators had received reports of some passengers recording the attack on their phones but that the police had not confirmed those reports.

“Were they watching? I don’t know. Again, we’re still going through the video but there was a lot of people, in my opinion, that should’ve intervened. Somebody should’ve done something. It speaks to where we are in society. Who would allow something like that to take place? So it’s troubling but again, we’re working on that and we’re trying to identify anyone that we saw coming on and off the El at that time,” Philadelphia’s CBS-3 quoted Tim Bernhardt as saying. 

Bernhardt said that in the end, it was an employee of a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority who called the police and said that “something wasn’t right” with a woman on the train. An agency spokesperson confirmed that SEPTA police, who were waiting at the next stop, were able to “apprehend the suspect in the act”. A police officer eventually found the suspect, partially clothed, on the train and near the survivor. Fiston Ngoy, a 35-year-old homeless man, was arrested and charged with rape, aggravated indecent assault and related counts, police confirmed. 

“The rape that occurred on SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line Wednesday night (Oct. 13) was a horrendous criminal act. The assault was observed by a SEPTA employee, who called 911, enabling SEPTA officers to respond immediately and apprehend the suspect in the act,” SEPTA said in a statement released Friday, October 15. “There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911. SEPTA urges anyone who observes a crime being committed or any dangerous situation occurring to report it.”

Call 911 and be accused of being a Karen?

Leftist Dems and the media spent the past two years destroying people’s lives for calling the police. They falsely claimed that calling the cops on a black man is attempted murder.

Should people have done something? Obviously. I suspect there were few if any people in that car.

More relevantly though, what should the authorities have been doing? Philly is the realm of Soros DA Larry Krasner. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we find out that Fiston Ngoy, a homeless thug, was probably mentally disturbed, a drug user, and had a long criminal record.

What did the authorities do to maintain public safety?

Larry Krasner ran on a promise to eliminate bail. He hasn’t eliminated it entirely, but the only reason Ngoy isn’t back on the street is because of that $180,000 bail number. 

Why was Ngoy on the street at all? Because Philly, like many formerly great American cities, has become a free zone for criminals.