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A group of males apparently playing the notorious "knockout game" in which unsuspecting individuals are sucker-punched in public as the deed is recorded on video definitely picked the wrong victim Tuesday in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood.

The guy they walloped from behind is 66-year-old Harvey Kraft, a retired New York City police officer who was shopping for a sweatshirt on Brighton Beach Avenue, WCBS-TV reported.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Except Kraft didn't fall to the pavement as the punks likely expected.

"It was one o'clock in the afternoon. Broad daylight, crowded street. It was just something you don't expect," Kraft told WCBS.

Kraft's back was facing the street when police said a group of males attacked him with one delivering a vicious punch to his head from behind, the station said.

"They hit me in the temple," Kraft recounted to WCBS. "But I could tell it was a full impact, roundhouse blow, because it felt like a brick."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

You'd think most anyone, particularly someone his age, would've dropped like a brick but this former cop, who's almost certainly faced down scarier perps during his 20 years on the job, wasn't about to.

I just absorbed it," Kraft told the New York Daily News. "They were still standing there. ... They were prepared to see me go down.

He added to WCBS that "as soon as they saw I wasn't knocked out, and I pursued them, they were all running for their lives. Not that I'm a Superman, but I'm just glad it wasn't an individual or someone that would've been seriously hurt."

Video shows Kraft chasing after his alleged attackers, who got away. Video also shows two of the alleged assailants walking down a sidewalk prior to the punch.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

He was treated at the scene and declined to go to a hospital, the Daily News said, adding that after giving a statement to police, he asked officers to drop him off at a coffee shop so he could finish his errands. Kraft retired from the NYPD in 2002, the paper noted.

Kraft is pretty sure his assailants were playing the knockout game because "they had their video cameras ready to record. They thought, I guess, it would be a jokey matter to put on YouTube or get some media publicity," WCBS reported.

However, "its no game, Kraft added to the Daily News. That does a disservice to anyone whos attacked. ... I was just minding my business, then bam. It shouldnt be that way, obviously. Im glad it wasnt someone more elderly, frail. It looks like it was planned.

Kraft told WCBS he wasn't carrying his gun at the time of the attack.

"I want to advise people that they have to be aware of their surroundings, and unfortunately, it's like you have to have two sets of eyes in front of your head and the back of your head," Kraft warned, according to the station.

WCBS said that those with information about the attack can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) or they can confidentially submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter @NYPDTips.

Retired NYPD officer speaks out after sucker punch attackyoutu.be

This story has been updated.

Excerpt from:
Punks apparently playing 'knockout game' wallop wrong victim a ...

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The concept of the "knockout game" popped up again this week in headlines to describe why a 21-year-old in New York City allegedly punched a 62-year-old man, knocking him onto the subway tracks. It was first suggested as an explanation by The New York Post, which cited unnamed police sources that speculated the suspect may have been acting because of the alleged challenge. Other media outlets soon followed suit.

"Knockout game? Man punched onto subway tracks in unprovoked attack," a suggestive headline from a local Fox News affiliate in New York states.

If the so-called "knockout game" may sound familiar, it's because tabloids and right-wing media over the years have repeatedly promoted the notion of young people engaged in a hyper-violent and widespread trend. The reality, as law enforcement officials and researchers have documented in the past, is that the "game" is largely an urban myth and buzzword that media have used as a catchall for random assaults.

Even after many have debunked the "trend" as mostly unrelated incidents with no connection to any online challenge or game, reports attributing the crimes to the "knockout game" have persisted. The phrase also has a racially-motivated history often deployed to describe young Black people committing assaults on white people, and experts say it has been used to stoke moral panic and play into racist rhetoric.

There's currently no documented evidence that the 21-year-old suspect in New York this week was participating in a game when he allegedly struck the man, who survived the attack. And although various incarnations of individual challenges to commit assaults have existed over the years, these have always been rare and fringe activities compared with the media attention that they receive.

Fear surrounding variations of the purported "knockout game" have existed in some form since at least the 1990s, Chris Ferguson, a Professor of Psychology at Stetson University, told Insider.

As with most moral panics, Ferguson said, the instances of these "knockout" assaults tend to be disconnected by data, "then people use anecdotes to make a case for a 'trend' even when, for instance, assaults by youth are overall declining."

Reports of "knockout game"-related crime date back at least a decade. While people have spoken out admitting to playing the so-called activity, according to NPR, there is no evidence that it has ever been a widespread or concentrated phenomenon.

More often, the phrase (and its variations, like "knockout" and "polar bear hunting") has reportedly been used as a kind of linguistic net to portray young Black people comitting assaults as part of a wider, panic-worthy epidemic.

Back in 2013, when the purported trend was gaining national attention and references in major publications, the New York Times reported that police officials from multiple cities were not sure if the alleged instances of the challenge were evidence of a coherent and real trend, or if the whole thing was just blown out of proportion.

A police official from Jersey City told the New York Times that there hadn't been any "knockout game" reports in the area and said "if there ever was an urban myth, this was it."

Commentary about the purported challenge has also circulated online. In 2014, Snopes debunked a surge of rumors "bouncing around blogdom" about a 60-year-old woman fatally shooting two people who allegedly tried to perform the knockout challenge on her. But as the fact-checking website reported, there were no reputable details or verifiable pieces of information about the incident; it appeared to be totally fake.

Outlets and police agencies have continued attributing crimes to the alleged knockout game in recent years. Before this most recent NYC incident, The New York Daily News reported that a retired NYPD police officer used the phrase earlier in October after a group of people allegedly attacked him unprovoked.

Ferguson said use of "knockout game" as a buzzword to stoke fear will probably continue forever. He cited the concept of "juvenoia" to explain why adults "tend to overestimate the dangerousness of youth," and especially ones from lower-income communities.

"Because we're talking about kids, the 'game' concept is catnip for older adults who think all youth think about is games and can only perceive things through that lens," Ferguson said. "Like most moral panics, some version of it is likely to continually surface."

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The Perennial Panic of the 'Knockout Game' Is Back in Headlines

The knockout game was down but clearly not out.

Four recent, unprovoked sucker-punch attacks across New York City the latest on a 74-year-old woman have signaled the return of the insidious game, a sicko street challenge where thugs attempt to render an unsuspecting innocent unconscious with a single blow, a law enforcement expert told The Post.

Knock-out games are back. The attack on New Yorkers is very real. We have to keep our heads on a swivel, said Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Its not only the mentally ill who are committing these assaults. There are individuals who are angry, bored and brazen, who know they are not going to be prosecuted.

At least a dozen of the social-media driven assaults done for online attention, kicks or gang initiation plagued the city in 2013.

While the NYPD said it doesnt track such knockout-type assaults specifically, this year there have been closer to 20 sucker-punch incidents, media reports show. Among them:

He simply punched me in the face, which luckily I managed to dodge. He hit me four or five times, Medina Vargas said.

Medina Vargas said he was also whacked in the head from behind July 7 while riding the Fourth Avenue subway line with his girlfriend in Brooklyn. In that incident, he lost consciousness for four to five seconds.

I am afraid to live in New York, he confided.

On Wednesday, a 74-year-old woman was slugged in the face in an unprovoked broad-daylight attack in Midtown. The senior was out of the hospital and feels OK, the victims niece, Josephine Abragan, told The Post Saturday.

Gayman Hillaire, 73, was blinded in his left eye by a sucker punch in Brooklyn in January 2020, cops said. Hillaire was walking near Kingston Avenue and Saint Johns Place in Crown Heights when he was slugged in the face by a stranger just after 11 at night. Im feeling OK, Hillaire told The Post Friday before declining further comment.

Whether the attacks are being carried out by the mentally ill or thugs with bad intentions, the states controversial bail reform laws are emboldening attackers, law enforcers said.

It doesnt matter if its a game or not. Its just the way the streets are now, said one veteran Brooklyn cop. Perps think they can get away with anything, and most of the time theyre right. We arrest them and they get right back out.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton who served the city from 1994 to 1996 and again from 2014 to 2016 said the incidents are not confined to the Big Apple, and are happening all over the country.

He blamed the current criminal law climate.

If the person is mentally ill, they go in for observation and they let them out, and if they are not mentally ill, they let them out even more quickly, Bratton lamented. Theres no consistency of punishment or consistency of treatment for the people who engage in this activity.

What I worry about is the copycat issue. People see it, see that nothing happens to the people who are doing it, and may be tempted to do it.

Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Georgett Roberts

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Brazen knockout game back in NYC, expert warns

Barcelona came within a few minutes of being knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday. Inter Milan came into the Nou Camp and put three into the net of a shaky Barcelona defense.

Late into the game, Inters Robin Gosens put the visitors up 3-2. However, Superstar striker Robert Lewandowski scored in added time to level the scoreline at. In doing so, he provided a lifeline, however narrow it may be, to Barcelona in the Champions League this season. Also, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made a number of key and spectacular saves late on.

Despite the drama, the Catalans still face a massive uphill climb to qualify for the knockout round. In Group C, Barcelona sits in third with four points. Inter, which defeated Barcelona a week ago at San Siro, is three points clear.

Therefore, Inter Milan can clinch a spot in the knockout phase with a win over either Viktoria Plze or Bayern Munich. Inter now owns the key tiebreaker in the group stage, head-to-head record. Barcelona needs Inter to drop points in both games, home to Plze and away to Bayern in matchday six, to have a chance.

Barcelona learns its fate in the Champions League in two weeks time. Anything less than a win against Bayern and a draw or loss from Inter dooms the club to the Europa League.

Speaking of Bayern Munich, the Germans qualified for the next stage of the UCL with a 4-2 road victory against Viktoria Plze. Despite any domestic struggles, Bayern cruised along in the Champions League. The Bavarians have four wins from four games, scoring 13 and conceding two.

Not to be outdone, Napoli is perhaps the hottest team in Europe on current form. The Italians thumped a visiting Ajax side, 4-2. Just like Bayern, Napoli punched its ticket to the knockout stage with two games still left to play. Those four goals came from four different scorers. Hirving Lozano, Giacomo Raspadori, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen finished off the reigning Dutch champions.

The Italian club has now scored an astounding 17 group stage goals in just four matches so far this season. Overall, Napoli won 11 of its 13 games during the current campaign. The only two matches that they have failed to win were both Serie A draws.

Club Brugge also qualified for the knockout round as well. However, unlike the two aforementioned big clubs, the Belgian champions from a year ago will play a knockout game in the competition for the first time in team history.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Pressinphoto

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Inter push Barcelona to brink of Champions League exit - World Soccer Talk

The Under-19s beat Shakhtar thanks to goals from Palacios, David Jimnez and Julen Jon to ensure a top-two finish in Group F.

The Under-19s picked up another win in the UEFA Youth League matchday four. Palacios, David Jimnez and Julen Jon got the goals to clinch the three points against Shakhtar in a match that Real Madrid dominated from start to finish. This victory extends our youth team's lead at the top and guarantees them a top-two finish in the Group Stage. Should Arbeloa's side finish in first place, they will progress directly to the Round of 16. If they qualify as runners-up, they would have to play a knockout game against a side from the national champions' route.

The Under-19s kicked off on the front foot, not letting the Ukrainian team get out. The first real chance came following a first 20 minutes of Madrid domination, a free kick from Pol crashed against the left post. Arbeloa's side took the lead just two minutes later. The defence cleared the initial cross from Youssef, but Palacios picked up the ball and struck across the face of goal to open the scoring (22'). Scoring in four consecutive Youth League matches, the midfielder is now the team's top scorer with five goals.

In the second half, our youth team, kept up the same momentum and increased the lead thanks to a goal from David Jimnez. After good work down the left, Yeray played in the full-back who sent the ball home (55'). The Ukrainian team had the chance to pull one back, but Pieiro kept the ball out with two good saves. The Under-19s wrapped up the game in the 86th minute as Julen Jon made it 3-0, securing qualification for the next phase of the competition.

MATCH INFO0-Shakhtar Donetsk: Tvardovskyi, Rosputko, Faryna, Buleza, Savchenko, Yanovich (Bashmarin, 92), Yushchenko (Oharkov, 92), Losenko (Tsukanov, 77), Siheiev, Pushkarov (Lomaha, 92) and Pohorilyi (Smetana, 87).3-Juvenil A: Pieiro, David Jimnez (Alejandro, 82), Jacobo, Manu Serrano, Youssef, Chema, Manuel ngel, Palacios (Julen Jon, 82), Pol (Borja Alonso, 77), Yeray (Enrique, 77) and Gonzalo (Nico Paz, 70).

Goals:0-1 (min 22): Palacios.0-2 (min 55): David Jimnez.0-3 (min 86): Julen Jon.

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0-3: A win that sends them through to the next round of the Youth League - Real Madrid