The 'Knockout Game' Gaining Popularity

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
1

So, I’m hoping this can be a constructive topic. There is a new activity gaining a lot of popularity around where I live in D.C. called the knockout game. This activity is simply sneaking up on a pedestrian and sucker punching that person hard enough to make them unconscious. The elderly and women are not excluded. In DC a lot of the attacks are coming from teens on bikes. Apparently this game originated in NYC. There is a video in the last link that shows actual examples of it happening. It’s not a joke.

I’m posting this because it’s happening around the neighborhood I live in and also because I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. First - is this a new cultural phenomena? To me, it is. But maybe similar shit was happening in the 80s and 90s and I just wasn’t aware.

Second - what does this say about our evolving civil society? To me, it is a case of bored ass teenagers possibly harboring resentment toward people who they see as gentrifiers. I am not trying to defend the kids who do this. I think it’s barbaric and it has also caused people to lose their lives. Why are these kids so damn bored, and why do they feel the need to brutally attack pedestrians?

Third - what’s the solution? Is it just increased police surveillance? Harsh punishment to kids who are caught? Finding a way for bored teenagers to productively use their time? Or are these kids just rotten.

The gorilla in the room is that most of the attackers (in DC at least) are black and the victims have been white. In DC, it could be a response to the growing resentment toward the people gentrifying and fundamentally changing the character of the city. I am a DC native and current resident. I view the gentrification of the city as a good thing all things considered, but I do sympathize with long-time residents being pushed out of their neighborhoods.

Article on DC: Horrid Act That May Be 'Knockout Game' Reported In Columbia Heights | DCist

Article on NYC including brutal video: Video: NYPD Investigating "Knockout" Street Attacks On Jews As Possible Hate Crimes - Gothamist

2

It’s people knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong. It doesn’t really matter why. It isn’t our problem to solve it is the people doing it. A good way to stop it would be to shoot on sight. See it happen? Shoot the person who did it.

Leave all of the who why and what ever else to the attorneys and media.

3

Yeah, only 28, but growing up, you didn’t sucker punch people, you squared up, and (usually) only consensually.

4

Definitely. There are idiots in every race that ruin civil society for everyone else. They should be dealt with accordingly.

5

This type of shit has happen before and on the other foot. Douchebags with nothing better to do. I would recommend kicking their ass

6

Okay, over on another thread (Idaho woman attacked by wolf) the point was made by Pushharder that the wolves in his neck of the woods would not only kill lambs and calves for food, but would sometimes maul the animals just for the evil joy of doing it. Perhaps “evil” and “joy” are overstatements when applied to wild canid predators, but I think it fits.

And the solution seemed to be, judging from the consensus among members on that thread who actually share habitat with the wild wolves, to reduce their numbers using high-powered rifles.

And now here we have a group of supposedly human urban predators, who attack, like the wolves, without warning, defenseless prey, not for any benefit other than the sheer evil joy of the act.

I propose the solution is not so very different from that practiced in Montana and Idaho.

7

This shit isn’t new.

It’s just begun to get the attention it deserves

8

Bored stupid male adolescents are a dangerous bunch. Can’t change the last two synonyms, so you’ve got to change the first two. Generally, kids who think they might end up making boatloads of doe on Wall Street and sleeping with supermodels usually don’t do things like this. Ditto for kids who get out of football practice at dusk and can do nothing more than stumble home and eat dinner before collapsing. People need to feel like they have a present, and they need to feel like they have a future.

But that shit takes a while, and in the meantime, I’d probably want my mother or my girlfriend to carry, all things considered. The thought of a middle-aged woman being knocked out–I’d rather the teenagers who are trying to do it be shot.

9

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
It’s people knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong. It doesn’t really matter why. It isn’t our problem to solve it is the people doing it. A good way to stop it would be to shoot on sight. See it happen? Shoot the person who did it.

Leave all of the who why and what ever else to the attorneys and media.
[/quote]
They don’t know right from wrong, at least not in the sense you mean it. That’s part of the reason why people become victims. They think that everyone else thinks the way they do. These “kids” don’t reason anywhere near the way most people do. Their value system might as well come from Mars.

10

Every fucker under the sun knows right from wrong. I have grown up with kids like this that will swarm people for ipods and what not. They usually confide with each other bcuz they have no money and robbing and selling drugs is an easier solution than hard work. They know it is wrong yet still do it to feel like tough guys and to look cool infront of their buddies that are usually all in the same age group.

They desserve what they get and will learn the hard way in life that you can’t do shit like this. They will get what is coming to them I’ve seen it for a2 decades where I live. You reap what you sough in life so what ever shit they have coming to them they invested their time into doing negative things.

11

[quote]zecarlo wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
It’s people knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong. It doesn’t really matter why. It isn’t our problem to solve it is the people doing it. A good way to stop it would be to shoot on sight. See it happen? Shoot the person who did it.

Leave all of the who why and what ever else to the attorneys and media.
[/quote]
They don’t know right from wrong, at least not in the sense you mean it. That’s part of the reason why people become victims. They think that everyone else thinks the way they do. These “kids” don’t reason anywhere near the way most people do. Their value system might as well come from Mars. [/quote]

Ehhh. Their principles and priorities are different, that’s certain, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say this. I have spent a lot of time around kids in gangs–real gangs, I mean. You’d be surprised with regard to just how much they do know about right and wrong.

These people weren’t raised in North Korean internment camps. The kid who shoots a stranger and robs his corpse was privy to the same general moral education as were the fifty kids who grew up with him, in the same housing project, and yet will never kill anybody. The teenager who punches an old woman in the face sits in a classroom full of peers who would not do such a thing.

12

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Okay, over on another thread (Idaho woman attacked by wolf) the point was made by Pushharder that the wolves in his neck of the woods would not only kill lambs and calves for food, but would sometimes maul the animals just for the evil joy of doing it. Perhaps “evil” and “joy” are overstatements when applied to wild canid predators, but I think it fits.

And the solution seemed to be, judging from the consensus among members on that thread who actually share habitat with the wild wolves, to reduce their numbers using high-powered rifles.

And now here we have a group of supposedly human urban predators, who attack, like the wolves, without warning, defenseless prey, not for any benefit other than the sheer evil joy of the act.

I propose the solution is not so very different from that practiced in Montana and Idaho. [/quote]

Agreed.

13

[quote]Varqanir wrote:

judging from the consensus among members on that thread who actually share habitat with the wild wolves

[/quote]

Except that Michigan has both more wolves and more people than Montana.

14

[quote]smh_23 wrote:

[quote]zecarlo wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
It’s people knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong. It doesn’t really matter why. It isn’t our problem to solve it is the people doing it. A good way to stop it would be to shoot on sight. See it happen? Shoot the person who did it.

Leave all of the who why and what ever else to the attorneys and media.
[/quote]
They don’t know right from wrong, at least not in the sense you mean it. That’s part of the reason why people become victims. They think that everyone else thinks the way they do. These “kids” don’t reason anywhere near the way most people do. Their value system might as well come from Mars. [/quote]

Ehhh. Their principles and priorities are different, that’s certain, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say this. I have spent a lot of time around kids in gangs–real gangs, I mean. You’d be surprised with regard to just how much they do know about right and wrong.

These people weren’t raised in North Korean internment camps. The kid who shoots a stranger and robs his corpse was privy to the same general moral education as were the fifty kids who grew up with him, in the same housing project, and yet will never kill anybody. The teenager who punches an old woman in the face sits in a classroom full of peers who would not do such a thing.[/quote]
Knowing right and wrong and feeling it are two different things. One requires a lawyer the other a conscience.

I worked with criminals. I lived among them. I know more than I care to.

15

[quote]BPCorso wrote:
So, I’m hoping this can be a constructive topic. There is a new activity gaining a lot of popularity around where I live in D.C. called the knockout game. This activity is simply sneaking up on a pedestrian and sucker punching that person hard enough to make them unconscious. The elderly and women are not excluded. In DC a lot of the attacks are coming from teens on bikes. Apparently this game originated in NYC. There is a video in the last link that shows actual examples of it happening. It’s not a joke.

I’m posting this because it’s happening around the neighborhood I live in and also because I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. First - is this a new cultural phenomena? To me, it is. But maybe similar shit was happening in the 80s and 90s and I just wasn’t aware.

Second - what does this say about our evolving civil society? To me, it is a case of bored ass teenagers possibly harboring resentment toward people who they see as gentrifiers. I am not trying to defend the kids who do this. I think it’s barbaric and it has also caused people to lose their lives. Why are these kids so damn bored, and why do they feel the need to brutally attack pedestrians?

Third - what’s the solution? Is it just increased police surveillance? Harsh punishment to kids who are caught? Finding a way for bored teenagers to productively use their time? Or are these kids just rotten.

The gorilla in the room is that most of the attackers (in DC at least) are black and the victims have been white. In DC, it could be a response to the growing resentment toward the people gentrifying and fundamentally changing the character of the city. I am a DC native and current resident. I view the gentrification of the city as a good thing all things considered, but I do sympathize with long-time residents being pushed out of their neighborhoods.

Article on DC: Horrid Act That May Be 'Knockout Game' Reported In Columbia Heights | DCist

Article on NYC including brutal video: Video: NYPD Investigating "Knockout" Street Attacks On Jews As Possible Hate Crimes - Gothamist
[/quote]

  1. Yes, this is new. There are a lot of new things going on recently in culture. Of course you always had criminals and retards doing stupid things in public, but the spread–the scope and popularity–is totally new. And disturbing.

2)What do you think it says? We are not evolving as a civil society, we are devolving. I consider this so apparent as to be almost self evident from the extreme social isolation and use of e-society as a surrogate for real interpersonal society, the dropping vocabulary, and about a dozen other things I can think of off the top of my head. It is a symptom of much larger problems than boredom. In years past “boredom” as a teen meant 1) video games 2) drinking 3) graffiti 4) loitering and any of the above 5) some vandalism, 6) some combination of the above. It did not, outside of actual gangs or drug addicts, involve violence against innocents and elderly.

We treat our elderly with zero respect, and we are one of the only western developed countries to do so.

  1. Solution is not one you are going to like. It’s to change the culture, as zecarlo most recently pointed out in the “School system” thread and as Beans and others have pointed out in countless other threads, because this is a cultural problem. Only problem is, the direction culture has to move in to make that happen is one that most people will dislike and disavow.
16

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Okay, over on another thread (Idaho woman attacked by wolf) the point was made by Pushharder that the wolves in his neck of the woods would not only kill lambs and calves for food, but would sometimes maul the animals just for the evil joy of doing it. Perhaps “evil” and “joy” are overstatements when applied to wild canid predators, but I think it fits.

And the solution seemed to be, judging from the consensus among members on that thread who actually share habitat with the wild wolves, to reduce their numbers using high-powered rifles.

And now here we have a group of supposedly human urban predators, who attack, like the wolves, without warning, defenseless prey, not for any benefit other than the sheer evil joy of the act.

I propose the solution is not so very different from that practiced in Montana and Idaho. [/quote]

I would thoroughly agree. Unfortunately, that is not legal :((. It probably needs to be, the Vandals are taking over society…

I might end up in jail if somebody attempted that with me. There are very very few things that set me off faster and harder than being sucker punched. The only one I can really think of actually is violence against women. Heaven help somebody if they tried to do that and I caught up to them.

17

[quote]zecarlo wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
It’s people knowing right from wrong and choosing to do wrong. It doesn’t really matter why. It isn’t our problem to solve it is the people doing it. A good way to stop it would be to shoot on sight. See it happen? Shoot the person who did it.

Leave all of the who why and what ever else to the attorneys and media.
[/quote]
They don’t know right from wrong, at least not in the sense you mean it. That’s part of the reason why people become victims. They think that everyone else thinks the way they do. These “kids” don’t reason anywhere near the way most people do. Their value system might as well come from Mars. [/quote]

Going to have to agree with JLabs on this one. They know right from wrong. They choose to do this because of a variety of reasons, but also because they view themselves as the alpha males.

And if their value system DID actually come from Mars (the God of War), then who is to blame but the culture that let them skim by without any serious asskickings until they felt like they could get away with anything they wanted? --This is essentially my response to your “one needs a lawyer the other a conscience” point on knowing vs. feeling.

18

Let’s face it, in this country the concepts of respect, manners, compassion and empathy, all of the things that are part of what we call civility, are not emphasized or enforced. We are spoiled and self-centered. I live in CT. On the news the other day there was a report about a video game that was uploaded to a host website. The game was called the Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary. Yes, you got to reenact the killing spree. WTF?

I get that we have the right to make a game like that. I like a nation that allows that but, that doesn’t mean you make it. What kind of person thinks they should make a game like that? What is he thinking? How does he think? And who would even want to play that game? Is everything off limits now? People are fighting to have pictures of the murdered kids released. Why? If we, as a nation, can’t respect the families of murdered kids. If we can’t respect the kids themselves. What does that say about where we are and where we are going? I think some people want a world that looks like South Park or some reality show.

19

Right now he SHOULD be thinking that he is now officially on all Federal watch lists for making that game.

20

[quote]zecarlo wrote:
Let’s face it, in this country the concepts of respect, manners, compassion and empathy, all of the things that are part of what we call civility, are not emphasized or enforced. We are spoiled and self-centered. I live in CT. On the news the other day there was a report about a video game that was uploaded to a host website. The game was called the Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary. Yes, you got to reenact the killing spree. WTF? [/quote]

I read about this the other day. It was created by an anti-gun group if I remember correctly.

Make the game, let consumers put you out of business for being a fucking moron.