'Failure To Prosecute Crime': Musk Is Miffed As Women Share Their New York Assault Stories

A series of viral videos from several young female TikTok users, who posted emotional dispatches about getting punched on the streets of New York city. (Screengrab)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called out New York authorities for what he described as a “failure to prosecute” growing crime in the Big Apple and other major cities in the United States.

This comes as hoards of young female TikTokers raised concern online with a series of viral videos recounting random assaults they experienced on the streets of New York. One influencer, Halley Kate Mcgookin, with over a million followers, detailed an incident where she was punched while walking in Manhattan.

“You guys, I was literally just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face,” she said in a video viewed over 46 million times. Police later confirmed an arrest matching the details of Mcgookin’s case. According to The New York Post, similar experiences were shared by others on TikTok.

‘Failure’

“Failure to prosecute crime in New York (and many other US cities) allows violent criminals to assault women at will! The governor had to call out the national guard just so people could ride the subway,” Musk said in a post on X.

Musk also referred to New York City’s plans to intensify a crackdown on subway fare-beating by sending at least 800 police officers specifically to keep watch on turnstiles. The move, which was announced on Monday. is the latest in a string of recent moves to address concerns about safety and unruliness in the nation’s busiest subway system.

The NYPD said earlier Monday it plans to deploy hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes officers this week to deter fare evasion. Data shows the crackdown on fare-skippers is already underway. Over 1,700 people have been arrested on a charge of turnstile-jumping so far this year, compared to 965 at this time in 2023. Police have issued fare evasion tickets to over 28,000 people so far this year.

Police and Mayor Eric Adams, a former transit officer himself, in recent weeks have suggested some links between fare-skipping and violence on the trains. Subway safety fears have proven difficult to put to rest since people in New York and other cities emerged from Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns to a 2021 spurt in crime.

(With agency inputs)