There is no really nice way to say this, but I think this is one of those cases where people are just being stupid. At the end of the day men and women are not inherently equal, face it, men are far more physically capable, and max out higher pound for pound. In general women are more likely to be victims and are portrayed that way so often because that's how things are in reality, if some 6' guy wants to have his way with some 5' 5" girl, chances are in reality he can and the only thing holding him back is of course morality, society, and a sense of right and wrong.
Now, a lot of people are probably frothing in rage at this point, and perhaps even wondering why I point this out. The reason is that at the end of the day the idea of equality is for women, who are just as intelligent and as self aware as men, are allowed to participate in and have a say in society. The basic idea being that women should not be oppressed simply for being women, especially given how enabling technology has been. HOWEVER the idea of such social arguments should not be taken to imply that men and women are identical with the same capabilities, or viewed the same way
within society. Like it or not, male and female nudity are two entirely different things as far as both social and instinctual reaction goes. Simply put a shirtless guy might make someone a bit uncomfortable (but more often than not won't be noticed in the right context), but women running around topless get an entirely different reaction, female breasts being heavily sexualized, and reaction-getting whether they should be or not.
Like it or not, upper body nudity for men and women is different, the latter causes a lot more problems as people react to it as fair as that might be. As the notification to the police itself points out this kind of thing can cause massive disturbances of the peace, which is why it's mentioned that the woman can't be targeted for causing that (as would normally apply) but rather the crowd has to be handled. In short these laws are pretty much asking for problems, and the notification for the police pretty much admits it.
Now do not get me wrong, this is largely a social issue right now, and something that could be corrected over time, since the problems revolve largely around perception. This is the wrong way to do it right now, and pretty much is asking to cause chaos and problems. What I feel they should do is keep the general laws in place where women need to cover their upper regions in the general public, but loosen them in specific places, say allowing women to go topless
at public beaches/pools and such. Work into it gradually and loosen up the laws as society changes and adapts to the idea over a period of time.
As I see things if some dude crashes a car because there are women walking around topless on the sidewalk, that's their fault, not his. Similar to other distracting behavior from pedestrians (which can vary from area to area in what is allowed). It might not be fair, but society and it's trained reactions are what they are, which can be said for gender issues in general. In this case this is one that can be changed, but deciding to try and perform this radical alteration all at once like this is a bad idea, and going by the instructions to the police it seems like even the lawmakers kind of know what's going to happen here.
At any rate, despite this huge mouthful I've dropped, I can't see a huge demand for women to go running around topless in New York City anyway, so it might largely be an academic argument in the long run. I still maintain that it's a mistake, and the kind of idea that sounds good on paper or as a matter of principle, but doesn't take reality into account. I personally am waiting for someone to crash a car over this like mentioned above, and to see what happens.
