I think stating that we have "just a few bad apples" is really underestimating how frequently assault of any kind occurs.
I don't believe so. How many people out of the entire population do you think are actually the cause of assaults? My bet is that they are a vast minority, aka, a few bad apples. "A few bad apples" is a relative ratio. If only 1 in every 100,000 people actually cause assault (and my guess is the ratio is much, much lower), then this is just a few bad apples.
Sure, we don't hear about it that often, but that's because a lot of assault never gets reported.
We have to be careful when considering this though. If "lots" of assault is apparently not reported (not talking actual numbers, just concept here), then how do we know it's occurring? In order to know it's happening, it needs to be reported, or at least witnessed (in which case it pretty much becomes reported). I'm not comfortable with assuming that there is some "x" number of "unreported" assaults occurring each year, when since by nature of being "unreported", they can't be verified. I don't doubt unreported assaults happen, they indeed do, but I refrain from claiming to know how often they occur, because by definition, you can't report numbers on non-reported occurrences very accurately. You can only guess.
And this post seems like a rare case because the witness publicly proclaimed the crime and asked the victim to seek criminal action.
I think most people witnessing this sort of thing would step forward and good people and get involved as this person did, bringing awareness to the situation. This witness is also proof that there's nothing wrong with our culture. It was ingrained in this person to do something about it, and that's why they did.
However, we don't see the hundreds of cases that don't get posted on Facebook, that don't get public attention, and are privately (or not) reported.
Touched on this already above.
Also, I'd like to point out that assault falls on a spectrum.
Sure, agreed. I'm talking pretty generally about it though, not granularly about each particular type or anything.
There's issue that is circulating about the "pick-up artist" that's been training men to approach women on the street. Many people don't see this as assault, but from the experiences I've read of women being victim to this, many of the men from this program that have approached them are relentless. The women tell them "no", yet he persists and persists until they have to run away from them or almost become physical.
Many people do see this assault, once it reaches the point where when you've been asked to leave them alone, you continue to persist. There's nothing wrong with "training men to approach women on the street" with the intent to hit on them. That's perfectly fine. It becomes assault when the woman expresses she's not interested and the man persists. It's not assault to approach a woman and initially hit on them. But respect when they say "no". Most of our culture does recognize when it becomes wrong, hence why it makes the news and isn't seen as something to encourage. We here all frown on it, as do the media, as does most anyone you would ask living in this province. It's not a culture problem.
Not respecting the wishes of another person, following them, pestering them, is considered assault.
I completely agree.
My only disagreement with you is that I don't agree that our culture admires and encourages this obviously inappropriate behaviour as you seem to think.