Why are so many women getting punched in the face on the streets of New York City?
It’s a question everyone’s asking. Even the corporate media is talking about it, despite their usual tendency to ignore violent crime. But the liberal brain melts when indignant feminism butts heads with new-wave social justice trends like bail reform and homeless advocacy. They must acknowledge it’s happening, but as the Oppression Olympics ensue, every ridiculous justification comes up to explain why. Of course, the only stone remaining unturned is the truth.
At least seven women have come forward with stories of being violently assaulted on New York City in recent weeks, often taking to TikTok to explain how they were minding their own business when they felt a sudden blow to the head.
Social media influencer Halley Kate went viral for detailing her harrowing experience in a TikTok post now viewed over 50 million times.
“You guys,” she alleged in the video, “I was literally just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face. Oh my God it hurts so bad. I can’t even talk.”
@halleykate♬ original sound – halley
Likely many more of these attacks have occurred but gone unreported. Reality star and business mogul Bethenny Frankel came forward after Kate’s video surfaced, describing her own experience being “punched in the face” by a “homeless man” but being too “embarrassed” to admit it at first. Even liberal TODAY Show host Savannah Guthrie admitted how “a very good friend” of hers was “punched in the face in broad daylight, about 15 months ago” in New York. (RELATED: Someone Keeps Punching Young New York Women In The Face And City’s Dem Leadership Is Doing Nothing About It)
It’s not new, and it’s not uncommon, but the viral videos made it impossible for the media to ignore. Everyone agrees this phenomenon is clearly the symptom of an unhealthy society. But the liberal mind can interpret it in one of two ways. Both are wrong.
On the one hand, the left can interpret these attacks as analogous to the imagined “rape culture” on college campuses, or Hollywood’s #MeToo cri de couer. It’s the inevitable result of our so-called patriarchal society, where men are taught that women are objects to be used, not people deserving of respect. Just look at the ridiculous coverage out of the left-wing outlet Salon.
Men punching random women in NYC: A desperate last gasp of the male rage fueling MAGA https://t.co/rVuL2aDftR
— Salon (@Salon) April 8, 2024
According to Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte, these attacks are “an extreme manifestation of men feeling entitled to women’s time and attention.” The victims were just “living their lives,” which according to Marcotte, “is what enraged their assailants.” You see, these upholders of the patriarchy don’t believe women have the right to live independently. They resent that male power is eroding in the modern era, and that impotence is what’s causing them to lash out. Part Freud, part radical feminism — she ties it all back to “rise of MAGA.” (RELATED: Liberal Writer Says Men Punching NYC Women In The Face Is Somehow Trump’s Fault)
The other option is to just contextualize it all away. New York City might have a rampant homeless problem and excessively loose bail reform laws, but don’t worry. Your fears are mostly just your head in your head!
The Guardian reported how young women are “more likely to be attacked by someone they know than a stranger.” The outlet spoke to experts to back up the idea that New Yorkers’ anxiety around these assaults is not based in reality.
“Anecdotes are not evidence of much of anything other than maybe one horrible thing happened to an innocent person,” psychology professor Chris Ferguson told the outlet.
“These attacks are an outlier,” said Elizabeth Mosley said, a professor of medicine reportedly studying “gender-based violence.”
“This kind of stranger violence feels like the rape myth of a boogeyman who jumps out and assaults you. This is a very scary pattern, and these survivors have to deal with the physical and emotional ramifications of it, but this is a unique situation,” she continued, according to the outlet.
The New York Times found itself in hot water as these two views collided. The Times took the contextualizing route, suggesting in an Instagram post that social media sensationalism might be “stoking anxiety” about street crime in the city.
View this post on Instagram
But dozens of angry liberals of the feminist-bent hit back in the comments.
“You need to rewrite this whole caption. ‘Men are violently attacking women in NYC,’” one commenter wrote.
Another wrote: “….stoking anxiety? They’re SPREADING AWARENESS which is what you should be writing about.”
“Why aren’t you calling it what it [is]; violent misogynistic attacks against women,” a third replied, according to the New York Post.
In reality, both camps are equally deluded. This isn’t about misogyny, at least not in the way leftist feminists imagine. Neither is it just your run of the mill street crime. The entire argument obscures the real problem, and draws blame away from where it truly lies.
In reality, these assaults are opportunistic, perpetrated by sick individuals against relatively easy targets, under conditions of near-anarchy willfully implemented by New York City leaders. As The Daily Caller reported, these attacks are frequently considered misdemeanor assaults in New York, a crime that is not bail-eligible. Without a crackdown on street crime and homelessness, there’s little preventing or deterring these crimes from happening in the first place. Alleged perpetrators get released and are free to do it all again. But progressive ideology holds that this is a necessary corrective for a brutal and oppressive criminal justice system. To admit this is the inevitable outcome indicts the entire project. Liberal progressives are forced to cope, one way or another.
It might be ideological blindness. It might be pure political gamesmanship, deflecting blame from policy preferences. Either way, until liberals admit that going easy on crime actually leads to more crime, it means more young women in New York City will keep needlessly getting hurt.