By Mirna Alsharif —
NBC News
Numerous women have shared incidents on social media in the last month in which they claim to have been beaten by men while walking during the day through the streets of downtown Manhattan.
Several videos have gained traction over the last week on the social network TikTok in which women share their concerns about safety in the comments of posts and with other response videos.
One of them claimed that she had been assaulted when she was returning home after class.
Another claimed she had been attacked on her way to work;
and another said she was hit when she was walking her dog.
At least two of them described suspects with similar characteristics.
@jill_burke, @halleykate, @kendalllllllll888, via TikTok
The New York police explained Tuesday that they are investigating two recent assaults on women, although they did not confirm that the incidents described on TikTok are the ones they are analyzing.
He did explain that two cases are very similar to those described on the social network, although it is not clear if they are connected to each other.
The videos have gone viral amid a widespread perception in the United States that crime is increasing, even though FBI data suggests it decreased last year.
Concerns about public safety continue to anguish New York City, where a series of recent crimes on the subway led the governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, to send members of the National Guard to some stations.
Police reported a drop in shootings, murders and other crimes, such as high-impact robberies, in February compared to the same month in 2023. However, there was a 3.6% increase in serious assault crimes, with 1,968 reported to the police.
According to statistics from the last week, misdemeanor assault crimes have increased by 10.3% compared to 2023, and have increased by 15.7% over 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 crimes against women in the city or whether the police department is taking additional steps to ensure their safety.
Sarah Harvard, 30, was one of the women who shared her experience on social media after seeing others post videos in which they told what they had suffered.
Harvard said Tuesday on the social network
“I wasn't talking on the phone.
"I was walking somewhere and they attacked me from behind," he told NBC News, "so it was really violent. I didn't see it coming and I couldn't do anything, really, to stop it from happening."
The woman described feeling a “shooting pain” in her head as she returned home after the incident.
The rest of the night, she said, she had nausea, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.
[The president of Ecuador visits New York and New Jersey to support his compatriots]
Harvard mentioned that it did not initially go to the police because it thought it was an isolated incident and that officials might overlook it.
Since she learned that more women have reported being assaulted online, she plans to file a police report.
Since the attack occurred, Harvard
feels unsafe in the city she considers home:
“What is really unbearable is this general and endless feeling of feeling unsafe and of being constantly alert, always looking over your shoulder,” she added.
“This anxiety also manifests itself physically.
Last night I slept two hours;
the night before four hours.
"It's hard for me to breathe and my chest is getting very tight."
In their TikTok videos, the women echo similar sentiments describing their interactions with their attackers.
A woman said she was walking Monday when a man punched her in the face, causing a large bruise on her head.
“I was literally walking and a man came up and punched me in the face,” she said through tears in a TikTok video, “Oh my God, it hurts so much.
"I can't even speak."
The woman did not specify where exactly she was when she was attacked.
NBC News geolocated the place where she was walking in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
Police indicated that the incident occurred at 10:20 a.m. in the area of West 16th Street and 7th Avenue when
“an unknown individual struck her in the head.”
“The victim fell to the ground and suffered injuries to the left side of his face.
She was treated at a local medical facility,” police noted in a report shared with NBC News.
The affected woman shared an update on TikTok in which she added that she was looking at her phone when a man walking a dog attacked her.
“There was so much space on the sidewalk.
I don't know if he punched me or elbowed me.
I fainted, literally,” she said, “I don't remember it well, but I think he got really angry because I bent over.”
Just over a week earlier, in an area just over a mile south of where this woman was, another woman reported being punched by a man who had previously apologized.
“I literally just got punched by a man on the sidewalk,” he explained in a TikTok video.
“He told me 'I'm sorry' and then he punched me in the head,” he explained.
Police said an incident occurred around 11:48 a.m. on March 17 while a woman was walking her dog in the area of Kenmare and Mulberry streets.
"No injuries were reported as a result of this incident," she added in a report.
In an update posted to her TikTok account, the woman responded to questions she received about what she was doing before the attack.
“I wasn't looking at the phone,” she said, “I was literally across the street from my building walking my dog to the dog park.
He had seen the man.
He was walking slowly towards me and I didn't think about anything.
And then he told me: 'I'm sorry,' he hit me and left immediately."
She said another woman who witnessed the attack came to help her.
None of the women who posted on TikTok responded to requests for comment.
Nor did others who also shared videos on the internet.
Many women on social media have since expressed that watching videos of others sharing their experiences has left them uneasy.
“I have never felt so unsafe in the city as I do now,” Melinda Melrose, who participated in the show
Too Hot to Handle
, said on TikTok .
“This is another reason why I packed all my things out of my apartment, put them in storage, and am moving.
I don’t have time to end up in the news and become someone’s victim,” she concluded.