Subway safety has become little more than an oxymoron these days in America’s major cities. Nowhere has mass transit become so synonymous with mass violence as on the New York City subway system. For riders of New York subways, simply stepping onto the rail platform is becoming provocation enough to draw assault upon oneself.
When, not if, you become the day’s targeted victim, experience warns you not to expect your fellow New Yorkers to involve themselves very much in your peril. You have become for them the sacrificial sheep who distract the wolf as it devours you long enough for them to make a quick getaway, at least until their number comes up.
One unlucky woman’s number came up last Sunday in a Brooklyn subway station:
Fredrick Marshall, 42, a complete stranger, allegedly followed the 20-year-old woman onto the Manhattan-bound J train platform at Norwood Avenue in Cypress Hills around 9 a.m. Sunday, …started arguing with her…[T]he hulking brute, wearing all white, grabb[ed] the woman as she tried to walk away. The victim began to scream for help, prompting several men to gather on the elevated platform.
It was in the ensuing harrowing moments when things were about to get most dire, just as she was “shoved…to the ground and bear-hugged… as she attempted to run away a second time,” that the woman’s luck took a sudden and unexpected turn for the better.
For her, Independence Day was celebrated early this year in New York City, or at least maybe a first shot was fired. Unsuspecting riders on that city subway platform were treated to a special kind of fireworks display, the likes of which are not seen very much these days, especially in the “Big Blue Apple.”
One of her rescuers stated it succinctly, as only a New Yorker can, as he turned his wrath on the would-be attacker: “I’m gonna f**k you up!”
What caught my eye is that the New York Post article, quoted above, calls the woman’s rescuers “vigilantes.” The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on the incident also uses “vigilante” to describe brave men: “a handful of vigilantes stepped up to deliver a hulking lowlife a painful lesson after catching him harassing and assaulting a helpless young woman in New York City earlier this week.”
Of course, not everyone present stepped up to help. At least one person in the crowd, posting as “Nicabori5,” immortalized the incident as phone footage on TikTok. Yet admittedly, it is worth a watch. And in this instance, undoubtedly the video played a role in the subsequent capture and arrest of the assailant and, one hopes, as evidence in his conviction.
I’ve never been so glad to see someone get hopped in my life. Train conductor knew the assignment and kept the doors open so they could beat him good enough and not miss the train. He should’ve got poked.
— Chalky White (@LogicalHater) July 3, 2025
NYC Subway riders prevent man from abducting woman in broad daylight pic.twitter.com/DvGSll6K9u
For conservative outlets to call these heroes “vigilantes,” though true enough in the technical sense of the word, shows a drift into “woke wordery.” Even though the articles largely celebrate their bravery, that word gives an undeserved derogatory connotation to men who willingly aided an innocent fellow human being as she is brutally assaulted by a vicious predator.
Calling them “vigilantes” also suggests they have disregarded the law and have unjustly taken it into their own hands. These men are not vigilantes, and as strange as it may sound to our post-modern ears, we should call them what they are. Vigilantes impose justice long after the fact. These men decommissioned a criminal while he was in the act. Simply put, they are “good neighbors.”
It is the law that has failed to act to protect New Yorkers, especially the most innocent and vulnerable among them. It has unjustly bound their hands and tongues, reducing them to cowering, whimpering peons, pawns of the all-powerful, sadistic state, to be abused and tortured at will, as a means to its self-sustaining, self-pleasuring political ends.
Up until last Sunday, that is. That’s when the “railroaded” suddenly sparked to life with all the electric shock of the subway’s third rail. Nobody was probably more shocked than the attacker, maybe not even the subway police, who almost certainly were also present, and as lifeless as wallflowers painted on as subway wall murals.
We have all seen how the “law” in NYC stands on the sidelines. They effectively empower the thugs are also unwitting agents of the state, brown-shirted enforcers.
This is not meant to demean or necessarily blame the good men and women of law enforcement for the crimes to which they have become forced spectators. Progressive prosecutors have placed them into the custody of their own handcuffs and have locked the keys away within the hollowed-out pages of their law books. They have ripped away the blindfold from Lady Justice’s eyes and used it instead to bind the hands of law enforcement and law-abiding alike.
Violent crime in big cities isn’t a bug, but a deliberate feature, intended to demoralize and silence citizens. When given yard time by their wardens, they can stretch their legs no more than to tiptoe the city sidewalks and subway platforms with averted eyes, not noticing, hoping not to be noticed.
Up until last Sunday, that is. Thankfully, the victim appears to have been rescued from her attacker without serious physical injury, although probably not before experiencing serious and lasting psychological and emotional trauma. Hopefully, at least, her trust in her fellow man may’ve been strengthened by the actions of these good neighbors.
In closing, and also hopefully, this “coming to a neighbor’s defense” will not be a one-off. How fitting if it should actually become just the opening salvo to an authentic, ongoing declaration and celebration of Independence Day in America!