Is the knockout game a hate crime?
Is the newest You Tube sensation, known as the “Knockout” game just random acts of violence or is there some element of racism involved in these violent attacks which may have already claimed the lives of four people?
In the last few months there has been an increase in random attacks throughout the US where groups of youths pick out an unsuspecting person and sucker punch them with the intent of knocking them out.
One of the youths records the attack using cell phone video and then posts it online.
In all of the incidents there was no attempt to rob the victims.
On Friday four people were held in connection with an assault on a 24 year old, Jewish, white man in Brooklyn, NY and one was formerly charged with one count of third degree assault and two counts of committing a hate crime.
The victim of the attack claims he heard the group talking about the knockout game immediately before they punched him in the face.
The NYPD is investigating eight other similar incidents in the same Brooklyn neighborhood against Jewish people.
Earlier in the year a homeless man was killed in a similar attack.
The so-called game involves groups of young blacks roaming the streets looking for victims.
There have also been several reported incidents of victims and intended victims fighting back including one in Lansing, MI where 17 year old Marvell Weaver shoved a taser into the side of an unidentified victim in another version of the game, but the taser didn’t work.
The victim’s licensed .40 caliber handgun did, however, and he shot Weaver twice.
Are young blacks targeting whites?
According to Victimsofcrime.org the definition of a hate crime is: “Hate crimes are criminal offenses “against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.”
http://guardianlv.com/2013/11/knockout-game-a-hate-crime/
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