"Knockout game" violence leads to call for law
Eyewitness News
MIDWOOD (WABC) -- A New York state legislator says it's time to crack down on the violent "knockout game" in which youths sucker-punch innocent bystanders for kicks.
A string of attacks across the country are being investigated as part of the "knockout game." Among them, a 78-year-old woman strolling in her neighborhood in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. She was punched in the head by a stranger and tumbled to the ground. In Washington, a 32-year-old woman was swarmed by teenagers on bikes, and one clocked her in the face.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Tedisco of Schenectady is proposing a bill to make the violent game a gang assault with a sentence of up to 25 years. Youths would be charged as adults. The bill may be the first of its kind in the nation, according to the national conference of State legislatures.
"These twisted and cowardly thugs are preying on innocent bystanders and they don't care if the victims are young, old, a man or woman," GOP state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco told The Associated Press in announcing what would be one of the first bills like it in the nation. "Life isn't a video game. These are real people whose lives are not only being put in jeopardy but in many cases destroyed."
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9335005