Throwing a pie is not in the same league as the kind of violence that is being talked about in the article. Put gender and party politics aside for a moment. Just think bout how ridiculous it is to compare. 

To say that acts of violence against "broader society" has declined (in the face of the list of shootings and religious violence we've seen lately) is absurd. It's only a matter of time, it seems, until we are looking at the return of the violence against politicians that we saw in the 70s. Things vastly improved in the decades after but the general level of violent threat is increasing again.