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Updated: Teenager Punched Outside 72nd Street Subway Station

Rowdy behavior may have preceded the incident

August 8, 2023 | 8:00 PM
in CRIME, NEWS
57

By Daniel Katzive

A 15-year old girl was punched in the face near the 72nd Street and Broadway subway station Monday night. The suspected assailant was arrested at the scene.

According to the NYPD, the attack occurred at around 8:15 p.m. No information was available on what may have precipitated the incident, but police did confirm that the suspect and the victim did not know each other.

Paul Rocker, 51-years old, of 644 Riverside Drive (at 142nd Street) was charged with third degree assault, according to police. The victim was brought to an area hospital.

A passerby told WSR there was a heavy police response to the scene.

Update, August 8, 8:05 p.m.:

A man who was on an uptown 2 train with the parties involved in the incident told WSR in a phone interview that a group of teenagers had been behaving in a rowdy manner, pushing each other into other passengers, seemingly intentionally. A woman was jostled and this may have angered the man suspected in the assault, said the eyewitness. The suspect was later followed out of the station by the group of teenagers, who were yelling at him, according to the eyewitness, who heard him shouting back, “you have a knife,” though he saw no knife, nor did he see the actual punch. A WSR commenter corroborated his story, noting he also saw teenagers following the man and that one of the teenagers was handcuffed, though the police had no record of additional arrests nor of the teens’ alleged behavior. We will update as more details emerge.

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57 Comments
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neighbor785
neighbor785
1 month ago

I am glad that the suspect was arrested at the scene. How terrible for the teen.

My understanding is that third degree assault is not a “bailable” offense. I am supposing that Mr. Rocker will have a court date in the future but for now was released.

27
Reply
Joey
Joey
1 month ago
Reply to  neighbor785

The update leads one to believe there was something else going on here. A group of teenagers acting in a rowdy manner on the subway? Could it be that the arrested was actually the victim here? Could this be a miscarriage of justice?

14
Reply
Peter
Peter
1 month ago
Reply to  neighbor785

It’s no bail. It’s amazing how people don’t understand what ending mass incarceration and ‘reimaging” public safety means. This is what people “peacefully’ protested for.

33
Reply
Sarah
Sarah
1 month ago
Reply to  Peter

And if they had set bail, a well-off person would simply have paid it and walked out. How exactly does *that* promote public safety?

5
Reply
So tired
So tired
1 month ago
Reply to  Sarah

Sure, then keep both rich and poor assailants in jail. Lowering the bar for all criminals is not the best way to go for “equity”

3
Reply
Josh
Josh
1 month ago
Reply to  Peter

There is a difference between mass incarceration and bail reform. Why is it that people seem to not understand what the purpose of bail is? And why do people not understand that bail vs. no bail has nothing to do with the punishment for a crime? Why is there this constant argument that bail reform has resulted in people not being punished for crimes? Is it purposeful neglect of learning? Is it brainwashing from certain sources/talking points?

6
Reply
Mandy W
Mandy W
1 month ago
Reply to  Peter

Good point – many readers do not understand the bail/no bail – released/jailed continuum. WSR -or an informed reader – might do a public service by providing a chart of reasons for arrest and likely consequences, these days. E.g if this was “assault without serious injury” and the assaulter doesn’t have a record of doing this before, is he released, or held? If a jaw was broken – and there is a record = held, right? (Or at least electronically monitored.) I feel stupid, but tried to look this up – and couldn’t find a straightforward site. Any suggestions welcome.

9
Reply
Katherine
Katherine
1 month ago

Another day, another woman punched in the face unprovoked by an unstable, violent man. Remember when this used to be a safe neighborhood just a handful of years ago?

45
Reply
Chris
Chris
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

I get the statistics, but the neighborhood is most definitely seedier and creepier than it was pre-pandemic.

3
Reply
Josh
Josh
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

With the update, it sounds like there was more to the story than the conclusions to which many jumped.

16
Reply
John
John
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

The UWS seems like one of the safest neighborhoods in the city to me. I’ve lived here for a decade and my neighborhood is thriving—and not much seems to have changed for the worse—but YMMV.

10
Reply
Katherine
Katherine
1 month ago
Reply to  John

It’s always telling to see these kinds of comments coming from users with male names. It’s the same story in every comment section. Posts saying that crime is down in the neighborhood a safe come from users with names like John, Josh, Roger, and the like. Whereas posts saying that they feel unsafe walking in the neighborhood these days usually come from users with female names. We live in entirely different realities.

49
Reply
David S
David S
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

Here’s a reply from yet another user with a male name. I’m not sure how old you are, or where you grew up, but I grew up in NYC and I’m old enough to remember when crime was many times worse than it is today. Here’s a fact: quality of life crimes (like all the bicycle/e-bike/scooter violations), and low-level property crimes like shoplifting are without doubt up significantly compared to a few years ago. Such crimes make a neighborhood look and feel seedy and can contribute to a feeling that it’s unsafe. Unfortunately, the NYPD seems to think it’s no longer their job to enforce the laws against such activities, so they’re not going away anytime soon. But here’s another fact: any increase in violent crime and other felony-level crimes are a mere blip on the radar compared to the late 1980s.

What we do have is a difference in how crimes are reported. In 1989, an article about an assault like the one above , if covered at all, would have appeared on page 5 of the Daily News and possibly in a 30-second segment on WPIX News. If you didn’t read page 5 of the Daily News or watch the local news that day, you would have no knowledge of it. Today, such an article would be shared on sites like the West Side Rag*, and in social media, often with inflammatory or alarmist commentary surrounding it. And such coverage is accessible forever, unlike with print or broadcast news.

*I’m not criticizing the Rag for publishing this story. That’s their job and they do it well. But such coverage is part of the reason why perception of crime rates is different today than before the Internet.

17
Reply
UWS-er
UWS-er
1 month ago
Reply to  David S

Thank you for this comment. This explanation makes a lot of sense. We all walk around the neighborhood seeing more drug use, obvious signs of mental illness and homelessness, and e-bikes and mopeds ignoring all laws and nearly running us down. It’s easy to feel that things are out of control and more dangerous than ever. But in the 80s and 90s the chances of being robbed at gunpoint or caught in crossfire was vastly higher than it is now. Groups of people roamed the subways robbing passengers. Entire areas of the city were no-go zones because they were so dangerous.

That doesn’t mean things aren’t dangerous now. Random assaults by mentally ill people shouldn’t be tolerated. But like this commenter notes, in the past we’d never even hear about these kinds of crimes. Now we read them constantly, which adds to the perception that things are “worse than ever.”

5
Reply
Rebecca
Rebecca
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

I am a petite Orthodox Jewish woman who has lived on 78th Street for almost 15 years, and I agree with John! I love the UWS and have never felt unsafe here. Of course your opinion is just as valid as mine! My biggest concerns these days are the motor scooters that seem to have proliferated over the last few years, but I guess all things considered I have much to be thankful for living in such a vibrant neighborhood! Just wanted to give my counter-opinion to what seems like a lot of doom and gloom here.

20
Reply
good humor
good humor
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

i agree with you. I’m a male, but due to my daily schedule feel far less safe than I did in 2019. WSR rejected another comment of mine here, but I do think it’s a direct result of the ‘peaceful protests’ of 2020.

26
Reply
UWS-er of 25 years
UWS-er of 25 years
1 month ago
Reply to  John

Lived here for over 25 years. The neighborhood did change.

Last edited 1 month ago by UWS-er of 25 years
47
Reply
Ish Kabibble
Ish Kabibble
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

I remember it always being like this.

3
Reply
UWS-er of 25 years
UWS-er of 25 years
1 month ago
Reply to  Ish Kabibble

No, it wasn’t. Not even close

39
Reply
mkmuws
mkmuws
1 month ago

Obviously it’s horrible and dangerous for anyone, but there should be an extra penalty for this kind of child abuse, as with elder abuse.

19
Reply
We Can Dream
We Can Dream
1 month ago

Perhaps Mr. Rocker will be introduced to the charming young lasses who attacked the Asian family on the F train near the W4th station.

The justice would be both street and poetic.

17
Reply
jody
jody
1 month ago
Reply to  We Can Dream

That was a horrible frightening scene..I would be so scared if I were in that car

11
Reply
Michael
Michael
1 month ago

I’d like to know if this individual is a repeat offender and the person who also coward-punched me. Unfortunately, there is no description of the accused offender. But, the age seems about right.

19
Reply
Susan
Susan
1 month ago

It’s incredible that a 51 year old man would do something like this to a teenage girl. I hope I live to see the day when male violence in all its varieties—rape, domestic, war, unprovoked, mass murder, etc, etc.—comes to an end. But given its long history, I’m not optimistic.

8
Reply
Drew
Drew
1 month ago
Reply to  Susan

its not only male violence what about the girls in the subway that attacked some people?

7
Reply
Katherine
Katherine
1 month ago
Reply to  Drew

It’s funny – for every story of a girl attacking someone, there are literally hundreds of stories, men killing, raping and attacking others. They are in no way comparable.

14
Reply
Sam Katz
Sam Katz
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

True. In the prison population in America, men 90%, women 10%.

6
Reply
charles
charles
1 month ago

Unfortunately readers of WSR are jumping to conclusions based upon an incomplete report of the incident. I was there when the man was being chased by 5 female screaming teenangers in the North entrance to the subway station He stopped running for a split second and took a swing at one of them and then ran across the street to the south entrance of the station where the 2 policeman stationed. One of the teenagers was handcuffed which was left out of the story.

Therefore this should be lesson to readers to be impartial until you know all the facts.

68
Reply
Jacob
Jacob
1 month ago
Reply to  charles

This makes more sense in context. Reading the article, I thought it was very odd that a 51-year old man attacked a teenager out of the blue when there was no mention of mental instability. Defending himself against a mob of teenage girls from the hood passes the sniff test.

17
Reply
UWS-er of 25 years
UWS-er of 25 years
1 month ago
Reply to  charles

Correcting earlier submission, too many autocorrected words.

You are right. We are often jumping to conclusions.

However this particular situation is really bad regardless of the details. A grown man punching a girl is bad. Not as bad though when it was a last resort in self-defense. We know that teenagers could be more dangerous than adults. It has been happening over
and over lately without much repercussions for them.

Either way – increased violence without much consequences.

20
Reply
Ed Jones
Ed Jones
1 month ago
Reply to  UWS-er of 25 years

But how can you be sure that the girl or her friends don’t have a knife or gun? Even if all 4-5 of them jumped on him simultaneously, they can bring him down and inflict severe harm, including death. Plus, the guy could have been a small guy, too.

I won’t fault the guy for his actions from the comfort of my couch.

11
Reply
UWS-er of 25 years
UWS-er of 25 years
1 month ago
Reply to  Ed Jones

I agree with you. My point was that the incident was an act of violence.

4
Reply
Mark Moore
Mark Moore
1 month ago
Reply to  charles

Reporting on crime without the facts isn’t helpful. What’s the rush?

12
Reply
Michael
Michael
1 month ago
Reply to  charles

Agreed. But in all fairness, we believed we were reading a news report, per the listing “Crime, News”

It’s also unusual to read that the suspect was “arrested” if he was merely defending himself.

How about you cut us some slack?

16
Reply
Katherine
Katherine
1 month ago
Reply to  charles

“He stopped running for a split second and took a swing at one of them ”

Why am I supposed to remain impartial here? Even in your account, he stopped running away and attacked one of them. That is battery, not self-defense.

2
Reply
Ergo
Ergo
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

Seems like you are working harder than you need to here Katherine. First, guy seems to start as a good citizen engaging with rowdy behavior on subway. Second, guy is rewarded for his efforts by pursuit by a group spoiling for a fight. Third, he does take a swing. Fourth there may be a justification for that swing being self defense. Let us see what Mr. BRAGG and his staff determine.

1
Reply
Lee
Lee
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

Have to disagree with you on this. If an attacker is close enough to strike you, it is certainly self defense to turn and strike them. Maybe you feel no one should ever fight back-that’s your choice.

13
Reply
charles
charles
1 month ago
Reply to  Katherine

if you are running away from an attacker then turn around and hit him that is still -self defense, The five girls were practically on top of him when he turned around and took a swing.

28
Reply
Harry
Harry
1 month ago

I figured he was being attacked – that’s logical. Too bad we don’t have stand your ground laws in NY. There’d be a few less punks today.

26
Reply
EricaC
EricaC
1 month ago
Reply to  Harry

I’m very glad we don’t. We do have a right of self defense – but not the right to kill for property crimes. Or being unfamiliar.

0
Reply
hbcreme
hbcreme
1 month ago
Reply to  Harry

One of the most fundamental rights a person can have is to stand his ground and defend him/her self. We didn’t trade government police forces for this right. States which refuse to recognize a person’s right to defend themself, a god given natural law right, are really going too far. Very soon, there will be people walking around with guns on the streets of NYC legally. The city would be smart to revise its laws to accomodate this reality.

7
Reply
Pat Weich
Pat Weich
1 month ago
Reply to  Harry

I hope I don’t live near you Harry. Stand your ground is one of the most dangerous laws in the United States.

5
Reply
jezbel
jezbel
1 month ago
Reply to  Harry

No – it’s not too bad that NY doesn’t have “stand your ground” laws. We’ve all seen what that leads to. No way.
Perhaps you’ve all forgotten what a fair sized group of teenagers is capable of doing. Teens have egged on other vulnerable teens to commit suicide. They pick on vulnerable people. The power of the pack carries weight. They may have the immature brains of children but they’re built like adults. When there’s a pack mentality it can be extremely threatening for an individual traveling alone. I’m not blaming either side. But I can see how a grown man could feel threatened, especially if they’re set their sights on him as a victim.

6
Reply
Josh
Josh
1 month ago
Reply to  Harry

And many fewer people who weren’t punks but just had the wrong skin color, “forcing” someone to stand their ground and relieve these people, who weren’t punks, of their lives because the shooter felt threatened by their skin color.

New York’s self defense laws make sense. If you have a choice between escaping and using force, escape. Many fewer innocent people die that way.

1
Reply
Kurt
Kurt
1 month ago

I was on the subway car where the events took place that precipitated this incident (I also got off at 72nd st.) and I would not describe everyone’s initial reaction in the comments as indicative of what actually happened, nor is the article above even remotely complete.

24
Reply
barry f.
barry f.
1 month ago

random attacks are horrific. they are also increasing on the upper west side (and morningside heights). i go back to the issue of lack of law enforcement, and a breakdown in quality of life across the community (and nyc for that matter). specifically, the number of homeless people on the streets is almost mind-boggling. i have been a resident of the upper west side for 30 years and it has never – ever – been this bad. walk from 79th to 110th and you will see on every block homeless people, many are mentally ill. some are threatening and aggressive. where is gail brewer to address it? should we accept the encampments? the drug dens? the increasingly sorry state of the neighborhood? is it fair to us? to business owners? to children? to people who care about where he live and how we live? seriously. enough is enough. the upper west side is falling apart. to deny it is to live with your eyes shut.

22
Reply
Pat Weich
Pat Weich
1 month ago
Reply to  barry f.

You run into trouble when you compare crime with immigrants who come for refuge. Apples and oranges.

1
Reply
hbcreme
hbcreme
1 month ago

Can everyone quit with the male attacking? How about just saying that some PEOPLE attack others and not having to divide people? There have been plenty of stories of women attacking innocent people. There have been many horror stories of abuse of children committed by women. Yes, it is mostly males attacking and mostly females getting attacked, but its NOT A RULE and talking about gender just confuses an already sickening and disturbing issue. How about using the word PEOPLE. Why is it that we can’t talk stereotype attacks based on race or religion, but we can stereotype about males? Go through any of these posts mentioning “males” and replace “males” with a racial group or religious group and your post won’t even see the light of day. But if your stereotype involves “males”, no problem!!

Last edited 1 month ago by hbcreme
15
Reply
good humor
good humor
1 month ago
Reply to  hbcreme

that’s true. if it were a racial group, it’d be censored to oblivion.

that said, it IS men who are doing the attacking.

in other words, maybe the truth hurts and censorship is bad.

just my thoughts.

5
Reply
Virvir
Virvir
1 month ago
Reply to  hbcreme

This is a fair point on the face of it, but I don’t believe any fair-minded person is asserting that violent offenders = male is “a rule,” nor that the vast majority of males are not good people. However, the facts support that around 90% of violent offenders are male. Why is this? It seems to me that’s the problem we need to solve for as a community.

2
Reply
Peter
Peter
1 month ago
Reply to  Virvir

Banning men seems like the obvious community solution, no?

And since you’re facile with facts and stats, what percentage of US combat deaths are male? Try that math.

8
Reply
hbcreme
hbcreme
1 month ago
Reply to  Virvir

This kind of stereotyping should not be allowed here. Replace “men” with “jewish” and see how far you post goes. No stereotyping and grouping of people should be allowed in these comments in my opinion. There are reasons we don’t allow it for other groups and the same should go for men or any group for that matter.

Last edited 1 month ago by hbcreme
8
Reply
Will
Will
1 month ago

We need more police and cameras on the UWS.

7
Reply
Bebe
Bebe
1 month ago

I have lived here for about 40 years and it has definitely changed. I do not leave home walking after dark.

9
Reply
Abra
Abra
1 month ago

So a man, harassed by a crowd of teenagers. And these teenagers were behaving like wild unhinged animals towards other people ie pushing pedestrians into other people and then followed him out of subway … so he goes off ( not condoning violence but come on) . And hopefully lesson learned ..albeit a harsh lesson learned by these teenagers who clearly pushed the wrong person, literally and figuratively.

Last edited 1 month ago by Abra
20
Reply
Anne
Anne
1 month ago

The “victim” was not innocent. No one deserves violence, but not an innocent victim. UWS is extraordinarily safe— what do people really expect?? This is about as good as it gets across the WORLD!

2
Reply
charles
charles
1 month ago

In1993 senator Patrick Moynihan described what happens if there is increased criminality:He coined the phrase “defining deviancy down” to describe the tendency of societies to respond to destructive behaviors by lowering standards for what is permissible. That is exactly the case with these teenage hoodlums who are coddled by their parents, their teachers and even by lenient treatment from law enforcement,

5
Reply

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