Hate crime charges against a black Brooklyn man for assaulting a white man could raise the stakes over what to do about the so-called “knockout game,” where primarily young black men surprise white victims with a rain of punches – sometimes for a $5 bet.
The potential racial element has begun to be noticed more broadly by community leaders in places like Brooklyn.
Quoted by a TV news station, Brooklyn Rabbi Yaacov Behrmann said that he believes the assaults are part of “a disturbing game by some African-American teens.”
Earlier this month, three Hoboken teenagers were charged with murder for killing a homeless man during an apparent “knockout game” attack. Police officials in Syracuse said the city had seen two such attacks this year, both of which were fatal. New York police this week reported seven instances of the “knockout game” in recent weeks.
Some media organizations have compiled dozens of examples of the game in recent years, and a St. Louis judge recently suggested that one man had attacked unsuspecting pedestrians 300 times.
In the Brooklyn case, a 24-year-old Jewish man told police he overheard a group of black men talking about the knockout game before he was attacked. Police subsequently charged a man named Marajh Amrit with two counts of a hate crime and third degree assault.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/1123/Brooklyn-attack-arrest-Is-knockout-game-a-hate-crime
The potential racial element has begun to be noticed more broadly by community leaders in places like Brooklyn.
Quoted by a TV news station, Brooklyn Rabbi Yaacov Behrmann said that he believes the assaults are part of “a disturbing game by some African-American teens.”
Earlier this month, three Hoboken teenagers were charged with murder for killing a homeless man during an apparent “knockout game” attack. Police officials in Syracuse said the city had seen two such attacks this year, both of which were fatal. New York police this week reported seven instances of the “knockout game” in recent weeks.
Some media organizations have compiled dozens of examples of the game in recent years, and a St. Louis judge recently suggested that one man had attacked unsuspecting pedestrians 300 times.
In the Brooklyn case, a 24-year-old Jewish man told police he overheard a group of black men talking about the knockout game before he was attacked. Police subsequently charged a man named Marajh Amrit with two counts of a hate crime and third degree assault.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/1123/Brooklyn-attack-arrest-Is-knockout-game-a-hate-crime