Multiple videos — which were uploaded to TikTok — have picked up traction in the last week, with women online sharing their safety concerns in comments and reply videos.
Several women have come forward on social media sharing incidents in which they said they were punched by men while they walking the streets of downtown Manhattan in broad daylight in the last month.
Multiple videos — which were uploaded to TikTok — have picked up traction in the last week, with women online sharing their safety concerns in comments and reply videos. One woman said she was assaulted walking home from class. Another said she was assaulted on her way to work. A third woman said she was attacked walking her dog. At least two of the women described suspects with similar characteristics.
New York police said they made an arrest in one of the incidents and are investigating another. While police wouldn’t confirm that the incidents described in the TikTok videos are those they are investigating, they shared that they’re looking into cases that are very similar to accounts posted on social media.
Officials said it’s unclear whether the two incidents they are investigating are connected.
The videos have circulated amid widespread perceptions in the U.S. that crime is rising, despite recent FBI data that suggests it decreased last year.
Concerns over public safety have continued to loom in New York City. A series of recent high-profile crimes in the subway system prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to send National Guard members to some of the busiest stations.
In February, police reported a decrease in shootings, murders and other crimes, like grand larceny, as opposed to February of last year. However, there was a 3.6% uptick in felony assault, with 1,968 incidents reported to police last month. According to crime statistics for this past week, misdemeanor assault is up 10.3% from this time last year, and it has gone up 15.7% in the past two years.
A police spokesperson declined to answer any additional questions about the recent assault incidents, including whether they represent an uptick in violent crime against women in the city or whether the police department is taking any additional measures to ensure their safety.
Sarah Harvard, 30, was among the women who shared her experience online after she saw other women post videos.
Harvard, who posted Tuesday on X, said she was walking to her comedy gig on the Lower East Side when she was punched in the back of the head near the Delancey Street and Essex Street station the evening of March 19.
“I was not on my phone. I was walking somewhere, and I got attacked from behind,” she told NBC News. “So it’s really violating that I didn’t see it coming and there was nothing I could’ve done, really, to prevent it from happening.”
She described experiencing a “spiky pain, throbbing feeling” in her head as she was walking home after the incident. The rest of the night, she said, she had nausea, headaches, dizziness and blurry vision.
I was on the way to my comedy show when I got attacked.
I got attacked on the sidewalk in front of the Duane Reade on Delancey between Ludlow St + Essex St.
I was walking, and out of nowhere, BAM! I almost fell over.
The back of my skull throbbing in pain, brain feels rattled. https://t.co/NSAJ7UC15P
— Sarah Suzuki Harvard (@sarahamyharvard) March 26, 2024
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/women-report-assault-incidents-tiktoks-nypd-investigating-rcna145153
