An alarming number of videos have surfaced on TikTok about attacks on women in New York City.
The New York Police Department has reported that random men in NYC have been accused of multiple violent acts, such as groping and, in once instance, making an anti-gay remark to a woman waiting for the J train, before hitting her and breaking her nose.
In another case, a man allegedly choked and punched a woman on the Q train who would not talk to him. A 13-year-old was also punched in the head while riding a Bronx bus.
A video was posted to TikTok in reference to three young women who were randomly attacked on the streets of New York, according to Patch. All three women took to social media to share their stories of being punched in the face by men on Manhattan streets and in the subways.
Ellio Wagner, a 19-year-old college student, went viral after she recounted her attack on TikTok when she says a man randomly punched her in the face and ran away. This occurred near West 26th Street and Sixth Avenue.
“I wanted to talk about this, because this situation really shook me up,” Wagner said. “It was very traumatic and it makes me very scared to be walking around New York alone, which is not something I’ve really been scared of.”
“If you are a woman in New York City, please protect yourself,” she added.
User Cosette Richardson posted a video with detailed information about another attack confirmed by the NYPD. The Sept. 10th incident involved a 27-year-old woman who was waiting for an F train in the West Fourth Street station. The attack left her with a bloody nose, for which she received treatment at Bellevue Hospital. The man escaped and has yet to be identified.
“I don’t know what the hell is happening in the city, why there’s so much hate and violence,” she said.
“It’s because of lack of safety, lack of not having the right people
there around us to take care of us when we need them,” Elizabeth Gomes, who lost her eye after she was attacked in a Queens subway station by a “career criminal” last September, told Fox News in April.
Patch reported that human rights advocates say the egregious acts of violence faced by women is a shared experience across the world – not just in NYC. Kathryn Travers, a policy specialist on ending violence against women with UN Women, expressed the various ways sexual harassment may present itself, such as catcalls and physical attacks, which shape the way women go about their daily lives.
A UN Women document reported that 66% of U.S. women surveyed said they have experienced a form of sexual harassment in public spaces.
“These are all very much guided by what we call a ‘sense of safety,’ really how safe do you feel in public spaces, which is directly linked to these experiences of sexual harassment that women face all over the world,” Travers said, according to Patch. Travers believes there needs to be social change and a shift in the culture where attacks toward women are unacceptable and seen as a violation of women’s human rights.
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