"Good to know, will take Philly off my list to travel..."
"It is Philly, the same town where they throw snowballs at Santa Claus. Philly is just New Jersey with a bigger ego."
In a nutshell, early Sunday a fight broke out between wedding parties at the Society Hill Sheraton, and police wielded Tasers and batons to get the apparently alcohol-fueled situation under control.
The 57-year-old wedding guest who died, reportedly the uncle of the bride, may not have been involved in the fighting, according to initial reports.
The ugly incident apparently reminds people of reports of unruly local sports fans - dubbed "the meanest fans in America" by GQ last year - ranging from Pukemon, who vomited on a girl at a Phillies game, to the Eagles game where even Ed Rendell threw snowballs at the Dallas Cowboys, to a deadly fight at McFadden's at Citizens Bank Park.
Last week's viral video of a Philly cop sucker-punching a woman at the Puerto Rican Day Parade didn't help either, and neither did the story about a city student feeling threatened after wearing a Romney shirt to school.
More comments:
" Philadelphia weddings now as dangerous as Philadelphia sporting events." (Twitter)
"Stay classy Philly!" (NYDailyNews.com)
"What do you expect... It's Philadelphia." (NYDailyNews.com)
"Surer glad I don't reside in 'The City of Brotherly Love.' Drunken idiots get what they deserved." (NBCPhiladelphia.com)
"Stay on the class? side there, Filth-adelphia! LOL" (YouTube)
For the record, that Santa was a skinny last-minute substitute in a shoddy outfit, and lots of other cities have outrageous episodes. A town near Boston, for example, had its own wedding brawl in May, with the mother of the bride getting arrested.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.
