NYC Woman: Mob of 100 Encircled, Assaulted Me

A Brooklyn woman said she feared for her life as she was chased, kicked, spit at, and pelted with objects by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men who mistook her as a participant in a protest against Israel's far-right security minister, per the AP. The assault, recorded by a bystander, unfolded Thursday near the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, where an appearance by Itamar Ben-Gvir set off clashes between pro-Palestinian activists and members of the neighborhood's large Orthodox Jewish community. The woman, a neighborhood resident in her 30s, said she learned of the protest after hearing police helicopters over her apartment. She walked over to investigate around 10:30pm but by then the protest had mostly dispersed.

Not wanting to be filmed, she covered her face with a scarf. "As soon as I pulled up my scarf, a group of 100 men came over immediately and encircled me," said the woman, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety. "They were shouting at me, threatening to rape me, chanting 'death to Arabs.' I thought the police would protect me from the mob, but they did nothing to intervene," she said. As the chants grew in intensity, a lone police officer tried to escort her to safety. They were followed for blocks by hundreds of men and boys jeering in Hebrew and English. Video shows two of the men kicking her in the back, another hurling a traffic cone into her head and a fourth pushing a trash can into her.

"I felt sheer terror," the woman recalled. "I realized at that point that I couldn't lead this mob of men to my home. I had nowhere to go. I didn't know what to do. I was just terrified." After several blocks, the officer hustled the woman into a police vehicle. The woman, a lifelong New Yorker, said she was left with bruises and mentally shaken by the episode, which she said police should investigate as an act of hate. "I'm afraid to move around the neighborhood where I've lived for a decade," she told the AP. "It doesn't seem like anyone in any position of power really cares." A police spokesperson said one person was arrested and five others were issued summons following the demonstration, but did not say whether anyone involved in assaulting the woman was charged. (More assault stories.)