On March 23, 2024, influencer Halley Kate Mcgookin was just walking down the street when suddenly she was punched in the face for no apparent reason. She then proceeded to upload a TikTok about her experience. After her video went viral, over a dozen other women posted videos detailing very similar experiences.
Mikayla Toninato, 27, was one of the other women who got punched and shared their experience via TikTok. In her experience, she suffered a black eye. She then told a cop, who seemed almost unfazed by the situation, as he had seen these random acts of violence many times.
Ever since the rise of social media in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, people have started to do more violent and random things in an attempt for fame. Their reckless behavior has often come with a lack of consequences and a slim chance of going viral.
This is best summed up by Mrs. Reichman, instructor of Gateway’s True Crime class, who said, “People are reckless sometimes and they think it will be funny or they will be famous, but they don’t realize the impact,” in response to why she thought these random acts of violence were happening.
People are reckless sometimes and they think it will be funny or they will be famous, but they don’t realize the impact.
— Jill Reichman, True Crime & Detective Stories, GRHS faculty
Despite the impact of these random acts, they will often either face no or very minor consequences. In an interview with Mr. Widener, teacher of Gateway’s Law & Order class, when he was asked about how the lack of consequences contributes to the occurence of random acts of violence, he said, “What can you expect if you don’t know if you’ll get into trouble.”
What can you expect if you don’t know if you’ll get into trouble?
— Dustin Widener, Law & Order, GRHS faculty
An example of this is how despite there having been over a dozen women randomly punched on the streets of New York City, all with different attackers, only one has been arrested. That man is 40-year-old Skiboky Stora, who was arrested for the assault of Halley Kate Mcgookin.
Stora is also a great example of people doing reckless things for social media fame. He put the video of his assault on Mcgookin along with videos of women being harassed on TikTok across ten different accounts.
People must stay vigilant of their surroundings. What most of the victims shared in common was being distracted. Most were looking at their phones, so they didn’t see it coming.
All over New York City and throughout the world, there seems to be a massive uptick in random acts of violence. With the reality that just walking down the street can result in a black eye, the world has become a much more violent place due to the lack of consequences and fame one can acquire from social media.
