Mediaboss Marketing

The "knockout game" is one of many names given by American news media to assaults in which, purportedly, one or more assailants attempt to knock out an unsuspecting victim, often with a single sucker punch, all for the amusement of the attackers and their accomplices.[1] Other names given to assaults of this type include "knockout", "knockout king", "point 'em out, knock 'em out", "bomb",[2][3] and "polar-bearing" or "polar-bear hunting" (allegedly called such when the victim is white).[4][5][6] Serious injuries and even deaths have been attributed to the "knockout game". Some news sources report that there has been an escalation of such attacks in late 2013, and in some cases the attack has been charged as a hate crime, while some politicians have been seeking new targeted legislation specifically against it.[4][7][8] However, other media analysts have cast doubt on this and have labeled the trend, although not the attacks themselves, a myth[9][10] or an example of a panic, both with racist undertones.[11][12] Liberal analysts claim that their conservative counterparts falsely promote a view that the "knockout game" trend is real[13][14] and conservative analysts claim that the liberal media does not report on it due to the racial implications it may have.[15][16][17]

In September 1992, Norwegian exchange student Yngve Raustein was killed by three teenagers who, according to Cambridge, Massachusetts, prosecutors, were playing a game called "knockout". Local teens said that the object was to render an unsuspecting target unconscious with a single punch, and if the assailant did not succeed, his companions turned on him instead.[18]

In 2005 in the United Kingdom, BBC News reported on the happy slapping incidents, where the attack is filmed for the purpose of sharing online.[19] The French government responded to this trend by making it against the law to film any acts of violence and post them on the Internet, with a spokesperson for then President Nicolas Sarkozy saying the law was indeed directed at "happy slapping".[20]

Three teens were arrested in Decatur, Illinois, in September 2009 and charged in the killing of a bicyclist, 61, who was stomped to death, and the attempted murder of another man, 46, who was also attacked and stomped. It was claimed that the teens were playing "point 'em out, knock 'em out" where a person is selected and a group of attackers decide to render the victim unconscious.[21][22]

In June 2009, a 29-year-old man was beaten in a Columbia, Missouri, parking garage by a group of teens who told police that they were playing a game called "Knockout King" where they find an unsuspecting person and knock them out with a single punch.[23]

In April 2011, Hoang Nguyen, 72, died in St. Louis, Missouri, after he was attacked in what was described by a local CBS station as "part of the so called 'knock out game'." Nguyen's wife, Yen, 62, was injured. After trial, the assailant Elex Murphy, 18 at the time of the assault, was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years.[23][24][25][26]

In July 2012, 62-year-old Delfino Mora was attacked by three teens and killed in West Rogers Park, Chicago. Anthony Malcolm, who recorded the attack on his cell phone (the video was seen on Facebook), was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Two other teens were awaiting trial in September 2013. The attack was said to be part of a game called "pick 'em out, knock 'em out."[22][27]

In 2013, a series of these attacks resulted in the death of the victims, all with some sort of game as a precipitating factor to the attack. Michael Daniels, 51, of Syracuse, New York, died a day after being attacked in May 2013, with the "knockout game" later mentioned in regards to his death.[28][29]

In Bolton, Lancashire, Eden Lomax, a 17-year old young man, murdered 43-year-old Simon Mitchell in an attack he referred to as a "bomb"; in the investigation it was discovered Lomax had performed other non-fatal "bomb" attacks in the days leading up to the murder.[2][3]

Ralph Santiago, a disabled homeless resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, was found dead after being attacked by three boys ages 13 to 14 whose assault was linked to the "knockout" game.[30][31]

Read the rest here:

Knockout game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia