The "knockout game" is yet another white panic racial myth. Stop spreading it.

[Recursion]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/25/why_the_knockout_game_trend_is_a_myth.html?wpisrc=burger_bar

I remember the summer of 2011, a story about a crowd of teenagers at the Wisconsin State Fair randomly attacking fairgoers went viral as a sign of a burgeoning race war. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel fanned the flames, calling the teenagers "rampaging youths" who caused "mob-like disturbances":

"Then around the closing time of 11 p.m., witnesses told the Journal Sentinel, dozens to hundreds of black youths attacked white people as they left the fair, punching and kicking people and shaking and pounding on their vehicles."

"Dozens to hundreds"? When witnesses can't differentiate between 24 and 100, should we really rely on them to speculate whether a crime was racially motivated? One of the reasons the story gained so much traction could have stemmed from the fact that Milwaukee is the most segregated city in the country, and it validated white residents' fear that their black neighbors are dangerous.

Now, the false trend story of black mob violence has cropped up again, as it seems to do annually, in conservative media outlets. (McKay Coppins wrote about this phenomenon in BuzzFeed last year.) The new scare is the "knockout game," in which black youths supposedly attack innocent people just for fun. Conservative pundits decry the MSM for suffering from political correctness and whitewashing crimes perpetrated by black people, but a more reasonable explanation for why most media outlets aren't devoting round-the-clock coverage to the knockout game is that—sorry, Sean Hannity—there is no hard data showing that it's a trend.

An important clarification: the game definitely exists, and has been around for at least a couple of years. I'm not claiming the game doesn't exist. But the idea that it's reached epidemic levels, or that it's only being played by young black people, is a fallacy. As Alan Noble convincingly writes, "Analyzing data is not as simple as watching some YouTube videos and Googling 'knockout game.'" And when it comes to the knockout game's supposed popularity, the data is almost entirely anecdotal:

Here’s the fascinating thing about this “spreading” trend: nobody seems to have any evidence that it’s spreading, or that it’s new, or that it’s racially motivated, or that black youths are the ones typically responsible, or that whites are typically targeted. This hasn’t stopped Mark Steyn, Thomas Sowell, and Matt Walsh from describing this specifically as a crime committed by blacks against whites, CNN from claiming that it is “spreading,” or Alec Torres at NRO from say it is “evidently increasing (in) popularity.”

[Nye Bevan]

1. "Knockout Games -- The Biggest Form of Cowardice" - Reverend Al Sharpton

When a 78-year-old Jewish woman was walking down the street in Brooklyn earlier this month, the last thing she expected was to be punched in the face. Tragically, that's exactly what happened. The elderly woman was apparently the victim of what authorities are calling a "knockout game" -- where, according to police, an attacker or attackers aim to knock out a person with a single sucker punch. It is an alarming trend that is spurring outrageous incidents across the country. It is deplorable, reprehensible and inexcusable. It is insane thuggery, and it is unequivocally wrong. These kids are targeting innocent people, and in many cases specifically targeting Jewish folks. We would not be silent if it were the other way around, and we will not be silent now. This behavior is racist, period. And we will not tolerate it.

Several of these "knockout" incidents have already been reported in New York, and around the country. Many of the New York victims appear to be members of the Jewish community, but even in cases where race/ethnicity/religion aren't factors, it is still unconscionable. As I often state, no one -- black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, male, female, the elderly, children, gay, straight or anyone else -- should ever fear walking down the street. We live in a free and open society, but we also live in a nation where laws protect us from such vicious behavior. A 28-year-old Brooklyn resident was recently arrested for allegedly punching a 24-year-old in a reported "knockout" occurrence. We encourage police to thoroughly investigate each and every case, and bring these perpetrators to justice.

There is nothing funny or even remotely entertaining about attacking innocents walking down the street. This is not a "game"; it is inhumane behavior that has no place in our country or the world. When you start condoning it and you start to act like there's something funny about these types of actions, you set up the kind of crisis that leads to the demise of everyone. Diversity is one of the greatest strengths of this nation, and we must respect one another in a way that preserves and further develops this diversity. Therefore, when an injustice happens to anyone, it is the duty of all to speak up. Silence is akin to tacit acceptance.

This week, I will be meeting with other leaders to address our next moves regarding this crisis. As one who has fought for greater civil rights for all, I cannot watch this travesty unfold. We can discuss the many factors that may lead to this sort of destructive behavior, whether it be poverty, unemployment, etc., but at the end of the day, there is no excuse ever to bestow violence on others. There is no justification for brutally punching or attacking a person in this manner. These kids must be held accountable, and then they must receive the right guidance and mentorship to halt any further damage. In our own communities, we must work harder to spot disastrous behavior and intervene before anything horrific like these attacks take place. All of us need to push for better schools, job opportunities, after-school programs, recreation/community centers and more.

- Reverend Al Sharpton

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/knockout-games_b_4340317.html?utm_hp_ref=business

[840high]

5. Good statement from him.

[Gravitycollapse]

7. This isn't a crisis. If it has become popular it is only because the media makes it so.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. LOL. Give it up, Nye

Continuously refrencing Al Sharpton on every thread will do nothing to change the fact this has been blown out of proportion. It will also not change the fact that there are no statistics to indicate this a new phenomenon spreading furiously across the country.

Sorry.

This is nothing more than racial panic being spread by conservatives.

I'm happy a lot of people aren't falling for it.

[Nye Bevan]

14. Well, at least I didn't commit the cardinal sin of citing the New York Post (nt)

[Cali_Democrat]

15. LOL

Did you get those stats yet indicating how the knockout game is spreading across the country?

Or are you still looking?

I'm sure you've tried the conservative sites.

Keep looking.

[hrmjustin]

28. I don't know about the stats but we have had several cases in Orthodox Jewish areas where people

here attacked.

The attacks are real and surprisingly many have been caught on tape.

[PatrynXX]

25. all has to do with an absurd book White Girl Bleed Alot

everytime my rather racist dad pushes this absurd game he mentions this book as proof that it exists. a WND nut

[Recursion]

13. I was one of probably three people who voted for Sharpton in the 2004 primaries...

But I don't see how his op-ed on this relates to the point that there's absolutely no evidence that this is a "growing trend", or that it's disproportionately black kids doing it.

[tjwash]

30. Now people are stealing old episodes of CSI? Kids today - no creativity.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Recommended.

I'm always discouraged when I see our board used to perpetuate myths.

Thanks for posting this.

[Gravitycollapse]

3. Color me surprised.

[Hoyt]

4. Some real rascals have been spreading that crud along with their remedy - more friggin gunz.

[AtheistCrusader]

32. I don't get the link to guns.

You know me, i'm a 'gun guy' and all, but there is literally nothing a gun will do to protect you from this, unless the attacker fucks up the initial attack, AND continues to attack you.

If they knock you out? Gun useless. (possibly stolen)
If they don't knock you out, AND they flee? Gun useless, because lethal force is not justifiable.

You might as well have a fucking fish with you.

[Hoyt]

40. I agree completely. But, some of the irrational gun guys think that's the solution.

Fish comment was funny.

If the knockout stuff becomes more common, I'll wear a mouthpiece and boxing head protector, might add a cup in case they change the target.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. If anyone ever knocks me out with a shot to the balls, please...

Do NOT resuscitate me. Whatever else happens, I do not want to feel that.

[Hoyt]

42. No joke. I hope never to experience that pain again.

[Recursion]

6. Here's the Matt Yglesias article that led me to the Wegel piece

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/25/why_the_knockout_game_trend_is_a_myth.html?wpisrc=burger_bar

(Emphasis mine)

True story. A couple of years back, I was walking home at night on North Capitol Street here in Washington, D.C., when two dudes randomly assaulted me before running away without stealing anything. At the time, I didn't think it was all that strange—I've lived in urban areas all my life, and plenty of people I know have been victims of anonymous street crime. The good news is that urban crime rates have been trending downward since I've been about 9 years old, so we're making important progress in this regard.

The weird thing was that after I blogged briefly about this, a number of conservative bloggers, particularly those of a racist bent, decided that this wasn't just one of many random acts of criminality that occur in the big city. No! It was an instance of "Knockout King," which I suppose was the 2011 version of 2013's more robust Knockout Game white racial panic.
But to be clear about something—insofar as there's supposedly a "game" here where the contestant tries to knock someone out with one punch, that absolutely isn't what happened. I was knocked down, but definitely not out, and then after that I got kicked a bunch of times. If you're familiar with the phrase "don't kick a man while he's down," take note—it really hurts quite a bit to be kicked while you're down. In fact, this substantial deviation from the "rules" of the "game" is a lot of what made getting violently assaulted for no reason such a physically unpleasant experience. But for whatever reason, simply noting that aggravated assaults occur at a pace of more than one per minute nationwide didn't quite seem good enough. Rather than remarking on man's cruelty to man as a general phenomenon, it's more alarming to devise this specific pseudofactual narrative. In other news, at summer camp one time, some boys decided it would be funny to zip this one kid up in his duffle bag and then pretend we were going to toss the bag into the lake. I went along with the "prank." Another time I participated in a prank that really was a prank, and in retaliation, some of the victims decided that instead of counterpranking they would knock this one kid down and sort of roll him down a steep hill.

And so it goes—at an expensive summer camp, "boys will be boys." On the streets of Washington, boys will be part of a trend piece.

[last1standing]

8. A black guy on TeeVee said it was real so it must be.

[DearAbby]

10. What is it they want Obama to do?

Do they need the President to confirm this was a horrible crime. Or do they want him to admit kids who look like they could be his son, knocked out a white person, who looked like it could have been his mother? They have always hated the idea Obama speaking out about the Martin case. Now they want him to admit the sins and apologize for them. You damned right it's racist....would they have asked the President to comment on Jeffrey Dalhmer? "I apologize for the entire Caucasian race"

[NuclearDem]

11. I fell for this when it first came out.

I was wrong.

[blogslut]

12. Filed along with

vodka tampons.

[Beacool]

16. I guess this is a myth too.

Three teens charged with killing Hoboken man in violent game of 'knockout,' authorities say

The boys, two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old, allegedly followed the victim, Ralph Erick Santiago, before one of the teens punched him in the head, cops said. Santiago fell back and collapsed onto an iron fence, where he died after his neck was wedged between two posts. The suspects, who were not identified, were allegedly playing a game that involves trying to knock a random person out with one punch.

Three teenagers were charged for the murder of a homeless Hoboken man who authorities claim was the victim of a violent game called “knockout.”

The boys, two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old, allegedly followed Ralph Erick Santiago, 46, on Third St. before one of the teens threw a punch at the victim’s head on Sept. 10, prosecutors said.

Santiago fell back from the blow and collapsed onto an iron fence, where he died after his neck was wedged between two posts, police said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teens-charged-killing-hoboken-man-violent-game-knockout-authorities-article-1.1463380

This happened in my town in September. Santiago was homeless because he had suffered brain damage in his mid 20s when he had been beaten up. It changed his personality. He was offered a place to stay by his former wife, but preferred to stay in Hoboken to take care of his mother who suffers from dementia. His mother goes to my church. The poor woman sometimes doesn't remember what happened to her son.

I don't know that it's an epidemic, but the problem is very real.

[Recursion]

17. "The problem is very real" -- what does that even mean?

Are you saying kids didn't kill old people before this?

[Beacool]

18. Not like this.

Some of the kids take videos and post them on social networks. A lot of the victims are not even robbed. They just sucker punch them and keep going.

Is it an epidemic? I don't know, but there have been several cases in Brooklyn and I heard Sharpton on the news speaking about bringing the two communities together (most of the victims in Brooklyn were Jewish).

[Recursion]

19. It's true that before social networks, criminals didn't post to social networks

and after social networks they did. Is there any indication that adoption of social networks among criminals has accelerated recently?

but there have been several cases in Brooklyn and I heard Sharpton on the news speaking about bringing the two communities together (most of the victims in Brooklyn were Jewish).

Black-on-Jewish and Jewish-on-black violence in Brooklyn dates back a century.

[Beacool]

20. Look, I'm not going to argue with you.

Believe, what you want to believe, but the knockout game is a reality. I have no idea if it's an epidemic as some have claimed, but It does exist.

[Nye Bevan]

37. Well thanks for nothing for ruining a perfectly good "IT'S ALL A MYTH!!!!" thread (nt)

[Midnight Writer]

21. 1974 University of Illinois

When I was a student there they called it "Polar Bear Hunting".

Groups of young black men would walk around on campus, pick a white student and one of the group would step out and punch him in the face. Posters were up on campus warning new students and we were told about this during freshman orientation. Sounds like an urban legend, but arrests were made and the perpetrators were indentified as local teens.

Years later, my father, a white guy, told me about his adventures as a teenager during the Great Depression. He was from an extremely poor family, and he and his buddies would go to the local college campus as a group. A wimpy kid from the group would walk up to a college kid and call him dirty name, and if he responded, the rest of the gang would run out and beat the "living shit" out of that "rich bastard".

I believe that a lot of this is more class-based than racial, and the race aspect is more of a "shorthand" to distinguish the perceived "haves" from the "have-nots".

[NYC_SKP]

22. I'm sending you a link by PM to a horrible "news article" that proves your point.

I will not post the link in this reply.

It's reprehensible, has a pictures of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin at the top and reads, "America's News Team".

The article has a bigoted caption with the pic:



And this is the title:

The Knockout Game: End the Violence! Shoot & Bury Em’… Just Like Trayvon

[JI7]

31. it is being spread by the right just like benghazi and all the other right wing outrages

notice how they all happen around the same time and then idiots like CNN will report on it for ratings and to get right wing support.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. Total scaremongering.

It exists, but it's hardly widespread. (And that girl had a good lump, but was not 'or dead', good grief. The 'news team' could figure out how old she was, but not if she survived? Come on)


It fits a narrative. One a certain party LOVES to sell...

[Midnight Writer]

23. As Jimmy Breslin explained

" It is not the guy on his way home from his job that is going to mug you. It is the guy who has no job and no hopes for the future".

The obvious solution is more decent well-paying jobs and the restoration of the American Dream. We need to enfranchise the disenfranchised by giving them a stake in their own futures. Instead, we seem intent on a "the rich get richer as the poor get poorer" economy.

[Orrex]

24. This is ridiculously irresponsible of you

Can't you see that people are desperate to panic about something? Who the hell are you to interrupt their frenzied over-reaction?

[MrScorpio]

26. Way back during Antebellum...

Fearful whites were so terrified of gangs of renegade slaves running around the countryside, murdering whole white families in their sleep, that they created the fugitive slave patrols to deal with the problem.

Later on, these patrols formed the basis of local police and sherriffs department. After the war and post-Reconstruction, those very forces were used to round up blacks under new Jim Crow vagrancy laws. The hastily convicted blacks became a new form of slave labor, since the prisoners were loaned out to local businesses and farms.

The Jim Crow era also brought with it a resurgence in Klan activity and a growing lynching problem, where entire white communities would celebrate the torture and murder of black victims with picnics and the taking of souvenirs from the still smoldering corpses. Blacks who were publicly executed for heinous crimes like whistling at a White woman, not showing due defference to Whites, or just generally being "uppity."

During the Civil Rights Era, white police forces used fire hoses, dogs and loaded shotguns on protesters that they called "unruly mobs" and "Communists," as the protesters worked to overturn the decades long tradition of a US Supreme Court sanctioned American Apartheid.

Now today, Whites have another thing to fear from "lawless" Blacks... The "Knockout Game."

Be afraid, be very afraid... As always.

[Nye Bevan]

38. Thanks for putting it in context.

A few people randomly being knocked out, some to the point of death, is certainly bad, but yes, things used to be a whole lot worse.

[Jamaal510]

27. Unfortunately this

doesn't sound too farfetched. There's no question that there are innocent people getting randomly assaulted, but the way that the wingnut media have covered this story is messed up. And one question I have is why did FOX call on Al SHARPTON, of all people, to condemn the attacks? Don't get me wrong--I love his show and I respect all he has done in the Black community, but the Right is acting like he (and Obama) are the emperors of us.

[JoeyT]

29. I ignored it as the same kind of thing everyone's

crazy racist rightwing aunt/uncle forwards them fifteen emails about. Remember how flicking your lights at someone that forgot to turn theirs on will make a gang follow you home and kill you?

It might've happened to someone, somewhere, but the people freaking the fuck out about it don't live anywhere near where it happened or where it could/would happen.

The people that are shitting themselves over a random SBM punching them while walking down the sidewalk largely don't walk and don't live in places that have sidewalks.

[Recursion]

35. Don't forget "check under your car!"

Because gang members for their initiation or whatever are supposedly hiding under God-fearing suburban folks' cars in parking lots, waiting to sever their Achilles tendons to get in the gang. Or something.

[shaayecanaan]

33. A white guy was convicted four days ago of a similar attack in the UK...

He actually king hit three people in a week.

I don't think that there is anything new in this, nor do I think that the "knockout game" has supposedly jumped the Atlantic. There have always been these types of senseless assaults.

[Beacool]

36. Nightline is leading tonight with a segment on the knockout game.

It's on right now.

[AverageJoe90]

39. It's unfortunate, but there are a lot of good points in this article.

The MSM really isn't afraid to sensationalize stuff to get ratings and money. Even if this usually done out of greed and attention-seeking & not out of actual animosity on their part(though, then again there are some who certainly do have that issue, see Limbaugh, Wacko Nut Daily, etc.), they are part of the problem.

[FrodosPet]

43. 'Knockout King' in 2011

The "Knockout Game" goes back to at least 1992, if not sooner. Here is an example from 2011:

http://www.webcitation.org/64J2wq7iH

Dec. 24, 2011 11:20 AM ET
Unprovoked attacks at heart of 'Knockout King'
JIM SALTER, Associated Press

Matthew Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly. He remembers a group of loitering young people, a dimly lit street — then nothing. The next thing he knew he was waking up with blood pouring out of his head.

The 51-year-old pizza kitchen worker's surreal experience happened just before midnight earlier this year, when he became another victim of what is generally known as "Knockout King" or simply "Knock Out," a so-called game of unprovoked violence that targets random victims.

Scattered reports of the game have come from around the country including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Chicago. In St. Louis, the game has become almost contagious, with tragic consequences. An elderly immigrant from Vietnam died in an attack last spring.

The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group — usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases — chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a victim. Unlike typical gang violence or other street crime, the goal is not revenge, nor is it robbery. The victim is chosen at random, often a person unlikely to put up a fight. Many of the victims have been elderly. Most were alone.

~ snip ~

[pinboy3niner]

44. I saw a guest on cable news advise people to cross the street to avoid groups of young black men

The co-hosts challenged him, one of them obviously incensed and struggling to maintain her cool. She was waaay too civil to him, IMO.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. If we're allowed to talk demographics around this, are we allowed to talk geography as well?

To wit, I haven't heard about a single instance of this shit West of the Mississippi.

Anyone want to speculate why that is?

[FrodosPet]

47. St Louis is west of the Mississippi

Granted, just barely.

But technically, the recent "Knockout Kings" phenomenon seemed to have something of a start west of the Mississippi back in 2011

http://www.stltoday.com/search/?k=%22knockout%20game%22&t=&l=20&d=&d1=&d2=&f=html&s=start_time&sd=desc&sHeading=Knockout%20Game

[Warren DeMontague]

48. Touche.

Okay, try 100 miles W. of the Mississippi. My bad!