Incels, ideology, and violence
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One of the more disturbing ways the Internet radicalizes people is by getting sexually frustrated young men to transform their extremely common experience into the endlessly insidious consequence of a global conspiracy to victimize them:
A self-described “incel” who is part of an online community of men angry about their lack of sexual opportunities terrorized outdoor dining patrons of a Manhattan restaurant with a bomb hoax in February and has recently pepper-sprayed five victims, resulting in three arrests, officials said Wednesday.
Malik Sanchez, who officials say has been on a tear in the past six months, harassing and accosting people he encounters often while recording it, was arrested Wednesday morning on charges he entered an enclosed outdoor seating section at a restaurant in the Flatiron district where he approached two female diners. Once inside, he declared: “Allahu akbar. Bomb detonation in two, in two minutes. I take you with me and I kill all you,” according to court papers filed at the time of his arrest.
Sanchez was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona Wang after prosecutors called him a menace to the community and noted his failure to appear at past court appearances.
The women and several others in the restaurant’s outdoor structure gathered their belongings and fled in fear after Sanchez’s stunt on Feb. 13, which he recorded on a video shared to YouTube, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.
“It’s clear in the video victims were terrified and the defendant’s actions terrorized them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaylan Lasky argued at Sanchez’s bail hearing. One woman reported that she was “paralyzed with fear” during the event, Lasky added.
He was also arrested in three pepper-spraying incidents, and officials say he assaulted two others with the pain-inducing chemical. During one arrest he had mace and a stun gun, officials said. At his home, investigators recovered five magazines for a Glock handgun, although they did not find a gun, as well as an aerosol gun, a paintball gun and “multiple canisters of mace,” prosecutors said.
Apparently this guy has yet to spend a single day in jail:
None of Sanchez’s prior arrests was bail eligible under New York’s recently-reformed bail laws, so he was not held in custody after any of the incidents. On Oct. 20, he sprayed a woman in the face on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and two days later climbed to a perch on the Queensboro Bridge, spraying at pedestrians, court papers from his criminal court cases show.
In the first case, for which he was charged with misdemeanor assault, harassment and illegal possession of the spray, he was offered a conditional dismissal deal. In the second, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a violation that did not result in any punishment, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He had been facing a misdemeanor case for reckless endangerment, trespass and illegal possession of the spray.
In the March 20 encounter, the documents also show, he is accused of beating his pepper spray victim in the head with a cellphone and a tripod. His misdemeanor assault, harassment and possession of a weapon case is still pending.
Meanwhile there’s money to made from all the lulz:
Sanchez, 19, who goes by “Smooth Sanchez,” was charged in the Feb. 13 incident with one count of conveying false and misleading information and hoaxes, for which he could serve up to five years in prison. His case was handled by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Investigators documented a history of hateful public rants, some live-streamed, in which Sanchez harassed and threatened women on the street, at one point referring to himself as “a virgin for life.”
Sanchez lives with his mother and makes about $200 a month doing DoorDash deliveries, according to an accounting of his finances he provided to the court. He also collects donations from his Internet followers, who apparently pay him with requests for his live-streamed street performances, documents say.
A few years ago I spent some time lurking on Incel forums. I discovered that Elliott Rodger is a genuine hero to many of these men. It was a fascinating and horrifying glimpse into a level of violent alienation that is symptomatic of various kinds of deep psychological, social, and cultural dysfunction.