It’s the kind of Tik Tok trend which we would gladly do without. For several weeks, young women spoke on camera about being beaten on the street in New York by a stranger. As reported by the media JezebelIt all started on March 17, when a woman named Olivia Brand reported being randomly punched by an unidentified man while walking her dog.
“They literally punched me in the head on the sidewalk” he explained in a video. The man would tell him ” Excuse me “ before hitting him in the head. Olivia Brand said she has filed a police report, but that has not yet led to an arrest.
Several dozen attacks have been reported
A week later, Halley Kate, an influencer followed by 1.1 million people on TikTok, posted a video explaining that she ended up with a huge bump on forehead after being hit on the street by a stranger. The procedure was very similar to the one described by Olivia Brand. Her video went viral.
Since then, dozens of testimonies from women describing similar attacks have emerged on the platform. It would not always be the same attacker, as some victims describe a man and others a woman.
Is there an unhealthy game behind the attacks?
It has not been officially established whether the attacks are connected, but some netizens suspect they are part of a twisted game called ” THE “Knockout game” (the KO game in French), in which a person is hit in a completely random way with the aim of knocking him unconscious with a single blow. A game made infamous in the United States after the death of a student in 1992 on the MIT campus.
In the comments on the videos, users express their fears for their safety on the streets of New York. As detailed NBC News, city police said they had made an arrest following one of the incidents and were investigating another. Police did not confirm that the incidents depicted in the TikTok videos were the ones they were investigating, but said they were looking into cases very similar to accounts posted on social media.
The fact that women are targeted is not trivial. Once again they are made to understand that the street does not belong to them, that they are not welcome in public spaces. “We already pay attention when we walk at night, now we have to be careful when we walk in broad daylight” complained Sarah Harvard, another victim. On X, she shared her fears of seeing this misogynistic violence escalate: “I am increasingly worried. I would rather it be an isolated incident than a series of attacks against young women. I fear this will happen again and inspire others to commit further acts of violence against women. »
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
