Asian woman beaten in front of luxury doorman building
In a still taken from security camera footage, building staff at 360 West 43rd St. remain in the lobby while an Asian-American woman is attacked on the sidewalk outside.
NYPD News
Another example of an Asian hate crime was captured on video and is all the more shocking because it appears to show building staff not coming to a woman’s aid as she is being beaten on the sidewalk outside the front door.
According to police, the assault occurred in front of 360 West 43rd St. a Manhattan luxury rental building. The suspect punched and kicked a 65-year-old woman while telling her “you don’t belong here.” ABC-7 reporter CeFaan Kim says the woman is Filipino-American and that she was on her way to church at the time. Gothamist reports the woman was hospitalized with serious injuries.
The New York Post says a suspect was arrested early this morning. Charges include assault as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime, police said. He lives in a nearby hotel that houses the homeless, according to police, the Post reported.
Here is a closer look at the suspect. Again, if you have any information please DM @NYPDTips or call them at 800-577-TIPS. All calls are anonymous. pic.twitter.com/wOtMz3IfIG
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) March 30, 2021
Security camera footage taken by the building, which is managed by the Brodsky Organization, shows the attack. In the video, two building staffers and a delivery person can be seen remaining inside the lobby while they watch the brutal incident. One of the men appears to be closing the front door to the lobby as the video ends. (Brick reached out to the Brodsky Organization for comment; we will update this piece as necessary.)
In a statement on its Facebook page, the Brodsky Organization says the staff members who “witnessed the attack have been suspended without pay pending an investigation in conjunction with their union.”
According to The New York Times, the union representing the workers issued a statement that says the door staff immediately called for help and urged New Yorkers “to avoid a rush to judgment” until after the investigation.
For New Yorkers, it’s a difficult video to watch because of the violence of the hate crime and because attended lobbies are supposed to provide a measure of safety—it’s one of the reasons renters and buyers pay more to live in a doorman building.
Adam Frisch, managing principal at Lee & Associates, which represents small building owners in Manhattan, watched the security video and contrasted it with NYC in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then, he says, doormen were trained to deal with crime by necessity—the city was far more dangerous than it is now.
He recalls an incident involving a woman who was being followed. She went into the closest building lobby and got the doorman’s attention. He got up—holding a lead pipe that was kept stashed under the desk—and chased away the would-be assailant.
“There was a sense among doormen that it was part of your job from time to time,” Frisch says of the doorman's response.
He says that management companies should be investing in security and training for doormen and supers in non-doorman buildings, as well as better alarm systems. Renters and owners can do their part by not allowing people they don’t know to enter the building and meeting deliveries downstairs.
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