Flash Mobs All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets Hurt

INQUIRER: A victim of Philadelphia’s March 20 flash mob, Anna Taylor was referred to in media reports only as the 27-year-old woman injured on South Street. Little was known or said about her. That will change Wednesday night, as people gather in a Frenchtown, N.J., restaurant for a benefit for Taylor, an uninsured waitress who faces $7,000 in medical and dental bills after being punched in the face by a youth still being sought by Philadelphia police. Taylor, who is separated and lives in Chalfont with a son, 9, and a daughter, 3, said she has thought a great deal about the punch – “the shock,” “the blinding pain,” and “the heartbreak that a teenager hit me in the face for no reason.” The blow that Taylor absorbed was so powerful that she lost a front tooth and its root, and the roots of nearby teeth still may die, her dentist told her. The punch also split her upper lip so severely that much of it was hanging from her face and she was unable to speak, Taylor said. Taylor’s mother, Peggy, a Germantown social worker, said her daughter needed so many stitches inside and outside her mouth at Hahnemann University Hospital after the assault that “we just couldn’t count them.” MORE