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What happened on a busy Manhattan sidewalk this week is the kind of violent, cowardly assault every parent and student fears — and it was caught on camera for all to see. Surveillance footage and the victim’s own posts show a woman walking to class who was suddenly grabbed, thrown to the ground, and inappropriately touched before bystanders helped her up.
Police moved quickly and a suspect, 45-year-old James Rizzo, was taken into custody and charged with persistent sexual abuse, forcible touching, and assault. The arrest should be the end of the story, but it’s only the beginning of the questions about how this man was back on the street in the first place.
As Megyn Kelly and others reported, Rizzo’s record isn’t a one-off — law-enforcement sources say he has more than a dozen prior arrests for sex offenses, assaults, and burglaries and was released on parole after serving a short state sentence this fall. That appalling pattern of repeat offending underlines a systemic failure: repeat predators are cycling through the system instead of being incapacitated or treated properly.
The victim, identified on social media as NYU student Amelia Lewis, did what too many are afraid to do — she went public with the terrifying video and named what happened to her so the public could see the reality of street crime. Her bravery forced the story into daylight, and every decent American should be grateful she refused to be silenced.
This incident is yet another wake-up call about the disastrous consequences of soft-on-crime policies in our cities. When parole boards, prosecutors, and city leaders prioritize leniency and catch-and-release over accountability, the people who pay the price are ordinary citizens — especially women and students trying to live their lives without fear.
New York’s elite institutions and campus safety officials must stop treating these attacks as merely a PR problem and start treating them like the criminal assaults they are. Universities should beef up real, effective security measures, coordinate immediately with police, and demand that local officials stop turning neighborhoods into hunting grounds for repeat predators.
Megyn Kelly’s decision to publicize the assailant’s background and celebrate the arrest helped light a fire under official action and pushed the media to stop normalizing street violence. Reporting the suspect’s history matters — the public has a right to know when the system repeatedly fails to keep dangerous people off the streets.
Prosecutors should treat this case as serious and seek the full weight of the law, not a slap on the wrist that lets another predator walk free months later. New Yorkers and Americans everywhere deserve a justice system that prioritizes victims and public safety, not one that apologizes for doing its job.
This is about more than one attack on one student; it’s about the safety of our streets, the accountability of our criminal-justice system, and the basic right of every woman to walk to class without fearing for her life. Americans who cherish law and order should demand immediate, concrete action from city leaders, campus administrators, and elected officials — and never let this kind of failure become accepted.
