Random Acts of Violence Surge Across the Country, Indicating Societal Decline: Expert

Crime has already been at high levels for over a year, and the rise of senseless violence signals a moral decline.

New York City police gather at the scene of a shooting of a 78-year-old man by police in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York on April 13, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An escalation of random violence in major cities across the nation has fueled concerns that the country could be in the midst of a widespread societal decline and “a sign of complete callousness to our fellow man,” according to a philosophy professor at Hillsdale College.

New York City

In New York City, three young women were randomly punched in the face by men on Manhattan streets and subways in the span of a few days in September.

One of the victims, 19-year-old college student Ellio Wagner, posted a TikTok video about how a man randomly punched her in the face and ran off while she walked to work on Sept. 8.

“I wanted to talk about this because this situation really shook me up,” she said. “It was very traumatic, and it makes me very scared to be walking around New York alone, which is not something I’ve really been scared of.

“If you are a woman living in New York City, please protect yourself.”

On Sept. 18, a New York City man told a stranger to “throw yourself on the tracks” before he randomly pushed him onto the rail bed at a Manhattan station, according to law enforcement. The man then allegedly pushed the victim onto the roadbed unprovoked and fled the area on foot, according to police. The victim suffered three fractured ribs and a dislocated shoulder.

Dallas

In Dallas, Texas, Martin Ramirez says his 19-year-old niece was shot and killed after opening her front door to a random stranger who was ringing the bell on Sept. 25. “Supposedly someone came up to the door and rang the doorbell,” Mr. Ramirez told CBS Texas. “And Savannah, my niece, answered the door. The gunman opened fire right directly, right at her.”

The gunman then got into a vehicle and drove to a nearby car wash, where he shot another man before fleeing the area, according to police.

Denver

Last month in Denver, Colorado, a rideshare driver was killed, and a security guard was severely injured in what law enforcement believes to be only the most recent random act of violence in the city.

Earlier that week, a woman allegedly shot five innocent people after she wasn’t allowed into a club, according to police. Days earlier, in a separate incident, a man stabbed and killed another man on a bus before getting off and killing a woman nearby on the street, which police say were both unprovoked attacks.

“It’s frustrating and concerning because how do you prevent a crime like that as a police department? It’s a random act of violence,” Doug Schepman, spokesperson for the Denver Police Department, told CBS Colorado.

“But what we can do is show up quickly, provide care resources on site to stabilize the situation, and work quickly to find that offender, which is what happened last night.”

Sliding Backward

The surge in thefts, harassment, and violent crimes experienced in cities nationwide during much of 2020 and 2021 had been expected by many experts to be a temporary blip as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a reaction and aftermath to the death of George Floyd.

However, more than a year after officials declared an end to the COVID-19 emergency and officers involved in Mr. Floyd’s death were convicted and sentenced, lawlessness continues to persist at a high level.

In Washington, homicides are up 15 percent compared to a year ago, with the city on pace to surpass 200 for the third year in a row, according to police. Foreign countries have also taken notice. A July 24 tweet from the Mexican Consulate urged its nationals to “take precautions” while visiting the nation’s capital due to “a significant increase in crime in areas previously considered safe.”

In San Francisco, some workers are now being told to stay home instead of risking the commute to work. An Aug. 2 memo from the Department of Health and Human Services advised federal employees to avoid the office at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building due to drug use and rising crime in the area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ian Church, an associate professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College, told The Epoch Times that the rise in random acts of violence could indicate that society may be moving backward and toward a pre-Enlightenment mindset.

“Humans naturally have a moral sense, but humans are also naturally tribalistic. Throughout most of our history as a species, we’ve prioritized members of our tribe over and against outsiders or the ‘other,’” said Mr. Church.

“The Enlightenment, however, allowed us to transcend our tribalistic impulses to deeply reflect on and appreciate our moral obligations to all people. Humans qua humans are worthy of basic decency. Humans qua humans should not be treated as mere means to our personal ends.

“My fear is that those Enlightenment values have deteriorated.”

Mr. Church said that the rise in random attacks across the country is “especially shocking and disturbing” and “a sign of complete callousness to our fellow man.”

“As much as it may seem senseless, there needs to be hope that people can come to a better understanding of what is causing a rise in these kinds of incidents, and only then can we begin to find a solution.”