Cop attacked at Cecil B. Moore station while riders watch

A SEPTA surveillance video posted to Philly.com Monday shows an assault on a SEPTA police officer inside the Cecil B. Moore subway station that occurred on Thursday, Sept. 19, as onlookers watched with no one taking action.

The video, which showed a time stamp of just after 3 p.m., shows a crowd of subway riders entering the train while a cop, identified by Philly.com as Officer Samuel Washington, attempts to stop a man who had allegedly entered the station without paying.

Shortly after the train departs the station, the video shows the man violently struggle with Washington before grabbing hold of the officer and flipping him over, and then under, a bench.

A crowd of onlookers then gathers around the two, with the Washington remaining pinned under the bench for about a minute before he appears to grab hold of his attacker’s face or neck, and pulls himself up to arrest the man.

No one from the crowd gathered to watch the struggle took action to help the officer, and one woman appeared to have stopped a phone call to take a picture or video of the incident.

The video was posted to Philly.com alongside an article by Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas, who refers to the lack of action taken by passersby as the “Philly Shrug.”