> Just a week ago, the Balt Sun railed and ranted against a firehouse
> noose which turned to be a hoax. Well here we have a pack of apes who
> refused to let a white woman and her companion sit on a bus, and then
> beat them half-to-death because she "alledgedly" spat. Balt Sun
> conveniently ignored the races involved. Imagine if the races had
> been reversed.
> ___________
>
> Woman injured in bus beating
> 9 youths charged; police, parents offer conflicting accounts
> By Gus G. Sentementes and Brent Jones | Sun Reporters
> December 6, 2007
>
> The woman and her boyfriend boarded the No. 27 bus and tried to find a
> seat as it traveled through North Baltimore.
>
> But a fight quickly broke out between the pair and a group of nine
> students heading home from their Hampden middle school, police said.
>
> By the time Maryland Transit Administration police officers reached
> the bus along East 33rd in Waverly on Tuesday afternoon, the teens had
> punched and kicked the woman, dragging her out of the vehicle's rear
> door and leaving her with broken bones around her eye.
>
> The nine students from Robert Poole Middle School, who are all 14 or
> 15, are charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and destruction
> of property. After juvenile hearings yesterday, all were released to
> their parents, directed to be kept under home detention and told to
> stay out of school until their next court hearing Jan. 4.
>
> But yesterday, police and some of the youths' parents sharply
> disagreed on what sparked the after-school brawl -- which MTA
> officials characterized as a rare example of serious violence on the
> city's public bus system.
>
> According to a police report, one of the boys kept jumping in front of
> the woman, Sarah Kreager, 26, and claiming that the open seats on the
> bus were reserved.
>
> When Kreager finally found a seat, the teens began throwing punches at
> her and her boyfriend, according the report. The beating continued,
> police said, even as the eastbound bus lurched to a stop and the
> driver radioed for help about 3 p.m.
>
> At one point in the Tuesday afternoon attack, police said the teens
> punched and kicked Kreager, broke down the rear door of the bus and
> dragged her into the street. The report says she suffered two broken
> bones in her left eye socket, two deep cuts on the top of her head and
> other cuts on her neck and back. Her face was bruised and her left eye
> was swollen shut.
>
> Kreager was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Her companion, Troy
> Ennis, also was beaten, police said, but did not require hospital
> treatment.
>
> But the mother of one of the suspects says the victim, for an unknown
> reason, provoked the attack by spitting in the face of one of the
> girls. Beverly Bell, whose son is an eighth-grader at Robert Poole,
> said the victim's boyfriend then pulled out a knife and threatened the
> girls, which prompted the boys to attack the man.
>
> Interviewed after yesterday's court hearing, Bell said her son had
> never been in trouble before. Testimony in juvenile court revealed
> that five of the six boys arrested had no juvenile records.
>
> "We don't know why that woman did what she did," said Bell, referring
> to the alleged spitting incident. "But I can't see these kids jumping
> on anyone for no reason."
>
> Another parent said it was Kreager who did not want any students
> sitting next to her initially, prompting an argument.
>
> Edie House, a spokeswoman for the city school system, said yesterday
> that the fight is "under review" by school police.
>
> "We're getting conflicting reports about what actually occurred on the
> bus," she said. "We've not had a chance to speak to the students who
> were arrested. Once we do that and complete our investigation, we will
> determine what disciplinary action is going to be taken."
>
> MTA officials also are investigating. "This agency is looking at this
> as a very tragic event," said Jawauna Greene, an agency spokeswoman.
>
> State officials characterized the attack as an isolated and rare act
> of violence on city buses that was quickly brought under control by
> police. Crime statistics were not available from the MTA.
>
> Greene said the agency is reaching out to schools, parents and
> students to let them know that riding city buses after school is a
> privilege that can be revoked. "If there is a silver lining in this,
> it's the fact that the bus driver's response was timely, and he knew
> the proper steps to alert authorities to prevent the loss of life,"
> Greene said.
>
> MTA officials said about 30,000 children in Baltimore and Baltimore
> County use the subsidized bus service.
>
> The bus dispute is the most recent in a series of local fights
> involving teenagers.
>
> Late last month, a brawl in Edgewood left a man paralyzed after he was
> assaulted with a baseball bat and kicked by at least six juveniles,
> according to Harford County sheriff's deputies.
>
> A few weeks earlier, city and schools police arrested 22 girls
> involved in a melee that sent one student to the hospital with minor
> injuries after a high school football game at M&T Bank Stadium.
>
> http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-