Knockout game
"Knockout game" is one of the names given in the United States for assaults in which a person attempts to make an unsuspecting victim lose consciousness with a single sucker punch. The assaults have similarities to the happy slapping trend seen in Europe, in which camera phones are used to record assaults. Other names given to assaults of this type include "knockout", "knockout king", "point 'em out, knock 'em out", and "polar-bearing" or "polar-bear hunting". Serious injuries and even deaths have been attributed to the knockout game. Some news sources report that there was an escalation of such attacks in late 2013 and in some cases, the attacker was charged with a hate crime.
History of attacks
The "Knockout game" became known after the murder of Yngve Raustein in 1992. Before 1992, the act of attacking and trying to "knock out" a person for entertainment also existed and was given different names, such as "wilding" or "One-Hitter Quitter" in the late 1980s and early 1990s.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". Raustein was stabbed after falling to the ground. Local teens said that the object is to render an unsuspecting target unconscious with a single punch and if the assailant does not succeed, his companions will turn on him instead.
In 2005 in the United Kingdom, BBC News reported on the happy slapping incidents, in which the attacks were filmed for the purpose of posting online. The French government responded to this trend by making it illegal to film any acts of violence and post them online, with a spokesperson for then President Nicolas Sarkozy saying that the law was indeed directed at "happy slapping."
In September 2009, in Decatur, Illinois, three teens were arrested and charged in the killing of a 61-year-old bicyclist who was stomped to death, as well as 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 attempts to render the victim unconscious.
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 would find an unsuspecting person and attempt to knock him out with a single punch.
In April 2011, a St. Louis, Missouri couple were attacked in what was described by a local CBS station as "part of the so-called knockout game". 72-year-old Hoang Nguyen died as a result of the assault and his wife, Yen, was badly injured. After the trial, assailant Elex Murphy, 18 at the time of the assault, was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years.
In July 2012, 62-year-old Delfino Mora was attacked by three men and killed in West Rogers Park, Chicago. Anthony Malcolm, 20, who recorded the attack on his cell phone and publicized it, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Nicholas Ayala, 18, was sentenced to 27 years. The third, Malik Jones, 21, was sentenced to 33 years. The attack was said to be part of a game called "pick 'em out, knock 'em out."
In 2013, a series of these attacks resulted in the deaths of the victims, all with some sort of game as a precipitating factor. Michael Daniels, 51, of Syracuse, New York died a day after being attacked in May 2013, with the "knockout game" later mentioned in regard to his death.
Ralph Santiago, a disabled homeless resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, was found dead after being attacked by three boys whose assault was linked to the "knockout" game.
Yale Daily News reported seven attacks during November 2013 in New Haven, Connecticut, that could be associated with the knockout game. Yale University's chief of police wrote an email to the campus community pertaining to the issue on November 21.
In the United States, The New York Times noted "a growing log of reports of such crimes in the Northeast and beyond". A number of news stories in late November 2013 covered incidents in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where a series of attacks took place during October and November of that year.
As a result, the NYPD responded by stepping up patrols in certain neighborhoods.
On November 24, 2013, in Katy, Texas, an 81-year-old black man was attacked and hospitalized. Two weeks later, Conrad Alvin Barrett, 29, was arrested after allegedly showing an off-duty police officer a video he recorded with his cell phone of himself perpetrating the attack and explicitly referencing "knockout". Investigators revealed that there were other videos on his phone in which he used racial epithets and another in which he wondered if he would receive media attention if he were to commit a "knockout game" attack on a black man. This was one of the first cases in which the victim was black. Previous instances in the US primarily involved white or Asian victims and black assailants. The Justice Department subsequently charged Barrett with a hate crime, the only time the DOJ involved itself in prosecuting these attacks. Barrett's attorney claimed his client suffers from bipolar disorder and was not on medication at the time of the attack. In October 2015, Barrett was sentenced to 71 months in federal incarceration. He also faced charges in state court.
In December 2015, a Hispanic man in New Jersey was reported assaulted by a Hispanic teen playing the "knockout game". The perpetrator turned himself in two months later and was ultimately sentenced to three years incarceration.
On July 27, 2016, in Milan, Italian police arrested a young Spaniard on vacation in Italy, after he made repeated assaults on passersby, similar to this "game". On that same date, in Greenville, South Carolina a man was attacked while playing Pokémon GO.
On August 29, 2016, a 30-year-old Guatemalan, Mardoquo Sincal Jochola, was fatally assaulted in Philadelphia and is alleged to have been a victim of the "knockout game".
On July 31, 2017, an unidentified man was caught on camera while knocking out a 24-year-old woman, Yana Rozanova, in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine.
On October 1, 2020, alongside Central Park West, an unidentified black man was caught on surveillance video assaulting 67-year-old actor Rick Moranis with a single blow to the head.
Antisemitic components
Several attacks on Jewish victims in Brooklyn in 2013 have been called antisemitic hate crimes. ABC Nightline reported that New York City police believed that antisemitism was likely to be a motive in the attacks, as all eight victims were identified as Jewish.Jewish community leaders in Brooklyn have spoken out on the subject, and the Anti-Defamation League regional office issued a public statement on knockout attacks "targeting Jewish individuals in Brooklyn". Amrit Marajh, a 28-year-old suspect in an attack that took place in Brooklyn, was charged with a hate crime as his victim was Jewish. Marajh has claimed innocence and denied the claims of antisemitism.
On December 3, newly elected black Democratic New York City councilwoman Laurie Cumbo added a letter to her Facebook page saying: "The accomplishments of the Jewish community triggers feelings of resentment, and a sense that Jewish success is not also their success." The Anti-Defamation League said her post was "troubling" and that it evoked "classic anti-Semitic stereotypes." Cumbo later issued an apology for the remarks. Cumbo added that the lives of victims and suspects will never be the same and that attackers would be "prosecuted to the full extent of the law". NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly later stated that he was avoiding referring to the attacks as part of any sort of trend to avoid further copycat attacks and has instead been labeling them as hate crimes.
Response
Government action
New York
On November 21, 2013 Republican New York State assemblyman Jim Tedisco put forward legislation called the "Knockout Assault Deterrent Act" to charge juvenile offenders in these types of attacks as adults, and would also punish those who were found recording the attacks. New York State Senator Hugh Farley supports legislation that would make assailants linked to the knockout game liable to harsher sentences, would try juvenile offenders as adults, and would make accomplices criminally responsible. Democratic assemblyman John McDonald, while admitting stiffer penalties were warranted claimed Tedisco's bill was unnecessary.Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, Republican State Assemblyman Dean Kaufert said he was considering drafting a bill to deter attacks.Communities
After incidents during late 2013 in Brooklyn in which Jews were victims of knockout attacks, Jewish leaders, councilmembers, and organization representatives spoke against the attacks.Leaders from the black community also made statements. New York City councilman Charles Barron stated that the root of the problem was a need for jobs to keep young people out of trouble; he also suggested additional funding for community patrols to act as lookouts. Representative Hakeem Jeffries said at a Crown Heights Youth Collective conference that attacks based on race will not be tolerated and that the collective will do everything in its power to see that justice is done. Brooklyn's then-District Attorney-elect Kenneth P. Thompson called out the attacks, saying that "there is no status to be gained" for knocking out an unsuspecting victim and that such violence will not be tolerated. Brooklyn Borough President-elect Eric Adams affirmed Thompson's statement, saying that, if you "play this game,... you will lose".
Other notable New York City community members who have spoken against the attacks include Reverend Al Sharpton, Dov Hikind, Russell Simmons, Foundation for Ethnic Understanding founder Rabbi Marc Schneier, former NYC mayor David Dinkins and former New Orleans mayor and current National Urban League president Marc Morial released a video in December 2013 saying "No to K.O." Retired Brooklyn-born boxer Mike Tyson has also spoken against the attacks on The Piers Morgan Show.