SEPTA Passengers Watch and Take Video While Woman is Raped on Moving Train

                            Fiston Ngoy:  Philadelphia Train Rapist (Alleged) 

UPDATED INFORMATION:  The DA with jurisdiction over the case declines to pursue prosecution for any passengers who witnessed the attack and did not come forward.  He promised that anyone who did come forward would not be prosecuted.  

So by now you may have heard of Fiston Ngoy, the 35 year old SEPTA attacker who raped a woman on a moving Philadelphia train. It happened around 10:00 p.m. on October 13. Most accounts have it that Ngoy boarded the train, sat down beside her, began grabbing at her breasts.  She pushes him away several times as seen on the train’s surveillance camera.  He persists, gets even more aggressive, tears off her clothing and rapes her. 

So you may be thinking okay, night in Philly, the woman’s had a few beers, the train cars are empty or nearly empty.  She shouldn’t have been on that train alone that time of night. Everyone knows the homeless ride the trains all night long if they’re not booted off.  The blame-the-victim scenario, you know?

Ngoy was unarmed when arrested, and we have no details about his martial abilities, but let’s stipulate that he was a fit 35 year old man, and there were a few people in that train car who were truly scared  and unable to act. Fine,  except that these same terrified people were not too terrified to point their smartphones at the attacker and his victim as the rape went on for approximately 8 minutes.  All this according to video surveillance.

 It’s indisputable there were several people in that train car who did not call 911 nor attempt to intervene in any way but were willing to post videos on name-your-favorite-social-media.

 Sick right? So okay, that’s the news if you didn’t’ already know. But is that where we’re at now? Looks like we are.  Yet I know people who, the minute such an attack began, would have been all over the perpetrator like a cheap suit.  Choke him out in no time. Think of that crew who sacrificed their lives by bringing down Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa.

I’m not one of those people, though.  I’m not brave. Every time I’ve  had to fight I fought but I was always afraid. If the other guy were a bum, malnourished and weak, I’d make easy work of it.  But that wouldn’t   be my luck and really   sometimes you just don’t know.

I’m too long in the tooth to get into a fair scrap with a thirty-five year old guy of man-strength.  Not to say I wouldn’t throw punches if he came for me. But my choices would be slim.

 I can punch a little even in my dotage so I would probably do it. I might get lucky. Either way I’m going to get fucked up.  I might as well get fucked up putting some lumps on the other guy.

 How long I can punch is another thing. With that adrenaline going you get a little boost but it soon tires out an old body.   After that initial surge, if you haven’t handled your business, you’re fresh out of adrenaline courage. Fucked, in other words.   

I don’t want to lose teeth, I don’t want to lose an eye, I don’t want to get my head pounded into the floor — all of which (and worse) I’ve seen happen.

Which brings me to my first choice. See if the guy is armed. I would not do anything if he were armed except hit the emergency line, get off at the next stop,   call 911.

But if I stayed on the train I would look for an escape route.  I would then pull the emergency strap line running above the windows of the train.  I  would get   up behind the guy get an arm around his neck, try to choke him out, and hope for the best. If all that failed, I would take the escape route. Maybe he'd come after me, maybe he wouldn't.

In the case of this female victim, all it took to stop the attack was a transit worker who stumbled onto the scene and called 911. The story goes that the police arrived three minutes later and took the man off and down.  The poor woman was in shock, in  a hospital, supposedly recovering.

I guess that’s relative. I don’t know how you really recover from such a thing but maybe she’s strong.

I seriously wonder what those people on the train car were thinking, what they felt, why they didn’t do anything.  That’s something I don’t know. I’d like to know and so are the police. They’re investigating, looking at video, preparing a variety of charges.

There’s always something you can do in such situations. Am I wrong? What would you think? What would you do? 

I’d like to know. It would make me feel better if you told me you would try even if you knew deep down you wouldn’t.