By BitcoDavid
Here’s the story. A train had pulled into the station in a Brooklyn, N.Y. subway in late January, and the usual throng of waiting passengers pushed and jostled to get on board. A 55-year-old man, was one such passenger, as were two teenage girls. Apparently, one or both of the girls pushed past the 55 year-old, in a somewhat violent manner. Enough so anyway, that when Charles Bunn finally got on board, he mentioned to the two girls that they could have at least said, excuse me.
According to Bunn, the two girls jumped up from their seats and began screaming at him. He stood up to respond, and the screaming broke into a melee.
A cellphone video shows the two girls tag-teaming Bunn with a flurry of punches. Bunn, a parolee, was in the duck and cover position, unwilling to punch the girls back – partially due to the fact that they were indeed girls, and partially due to his parole status. This event could have resulted in a violation and a return to prison. Finally, as a last resort for his own defense, he began throwing some punches of his own.
It turns out, one of the girls, Chantelis Solano, 18, was pregnant – and on her way to a sonography appointment at the time.
The fight – on the train – had broken up, but all three had the misfortune of having to disembark at the same station, where after more taunting by the girls, the fight resumed. Police arrived, arrested the two girls for assault, and sent Bunn to the hospital with minor injuries.
Arraigned, the two girls spent a weekend in jail, and now face felony charges. Solano lost her baby. Charles Bunn received treatable injuries to the head and body, and an incurable blow to his pride and his masculinity.
Embedded below is the cellphone video courtesy of NBC New York.
[wpvideo 1Mg3Sm7q]
Here’s their link: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Teenage-Girls-Attack-Man-4-Train-Subway-Fight-Assault-Arrest-188305481.html and here’s a link to the New York Times’ coverage of the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/nyregion/in-fracas-on-train-parolee-found-that-hitting-back-was-a-risky-option.html
***
In researching this story, I came across a number of comments from readers of the different sites where it appeared. I was stunned at the number of comments that blamed Obama, and at the number of comments suggesting that Bunn should have availed himself of his Second Amendment Rights.
OK. First off, what on God’s green earth could this tragic tale have to do with the current Administration? No, really. A fat and smelly cigar to the first person who can show me a link between this idiocy and the Obama White House.
Second off… a gun? Really? A gun? You’d shoot these two girls? I’m not defending what they did. Obviously they need help, and perhaps punishment, but would you really end their lives? For this? Bunn is on parole. That’s why he didn’t hit the girls back. P-A-R-O-L-E. Maybe you should read some of the articles you’re commenting on. And what if he were to miss? In a crowded subway, he’s playing Lone Ranger, and he accidentally takes out someone’s Grandma.
Sheesh.
Everybody’s a victim here. Everybody was in the wrong – and perhaps nobody was. Women fight back now. Sadly, there isn’t always a good reason to fight back. He posed no threat to them. Conversely, his having fought back could have meant a return to prison – a double edged tragedy in itself. Tragic that he couldn’t fight back, and tragic that he had to.
This story has been eating away at me since I first learned of it. We just don’t live in the world I grew up in. Maybe its time we faced that fact.
BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and obesity related illness.
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