They’ve become known in Chicago as the “punchers.”

Social media recently spotlighted two men accused of unprovoked attacks on women in Chicago.

The attacks are the latest in a series of violent encounters that have raised concerns about how the criminal legal system addresses the mental health of violent repeat offenders.

One video — which has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people on TikTok — shows a man identified as Derek Rucker sitting on a bench on the CTA’s Loyola Red Line L platform after he allegedly hit a woman on the back of the head last month.

Another man, William Livingston, also has been in the news , as a suspect in similar attacks in the Loop and Lincoln Park.

Livingston, 32, was arrested Aug. 19 and is being held in the Cook County Jail, facing felony charges of

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