KO the ‘knockout game’

Clarence Page

Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013 | 2 a.m.

It’s called the “knockout game.” It’s violent, stupid and just plain wrong. It also has been wildly exaggerated.

Of course, that last part brings cold comfort to those who have been brutally attacked.

The so-called “game” is so simple and pointless that even its pinhead perpetrators understand it: Just casually walk up to unsuspecting passers-by on the street and, without warning, punch them so hard that they go down with one hit — a “one-hitter quitter,” as it is called on some streets.

“Knockout” is neither new nor invented in America. It first caught media eyes in London’s South End in 2005; it was called “happy slappy.” It soon spread to other parts of Europe. Now it has landed here, where under such labels as “knockout game” and “pick ‘em out and knock ‘em out,” it has stirred a media frenzy.

Cases are “piling up,” said a recent report on NBC. It is “catching the attention of law enforcement throughout the nation,” reports CNN.

Conservative media, in particular, have taken a keen interest when the cases have involved blacks attacking whites. The “knockout game” reports play well in minds that already suspect “politically correct” media of deliberately downplaying black-on-white crimes.

World Net Daily calls “knockout” reports “part of what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse.” Considering how World Net Daily is best known for helping to spark the movement that still questions President Barack Obama’s birth certificate (it’s real, folks; deal with it), I immediately questioned whether “knockout” is really a trend or just a new name for one of the many stupid things some misguided youths do every day.

There’s no question that the “knockout game” exists and that some people have been attacked. Some of the sucker punches here or abroad have been caught on video and, of course, replayed over and over on video-hungry TV news shows.

But anecdotes don’t make a trend, especially when crime data show the vast majority of victims and perpetrators of violence to be of the same race. According to the latest annual FBI crime report, 62 percent of hate crimes in 2012 involved victims of anti-black bias, compared with 22 percent who were victims of anti-white violence.

Of course, if you’re a victim, crime stats don’t mean much. Yet, authorities are justifiably reluctant to call this so-called “knockout” game a new trend when most violent crime nationwide continues to show a 20-year decline, despite such exceptional local tragedies as Chicago’s homicide surge in recent years.

A healthy skepticism helps, considering the known tendency of some of us media workers, dear readers, to look for new ways to scare you.

A couple of years ago, for example, we had the threat of rising “flash mob” hooliganism. It fortunately faded.

Back in 1989, there was the allegedly rising “wilding” craze after New York City’s horrendous 1989 Central Park jogger rape case. Four black juveniles and one Hispanic juvenile were tried and convicted in that case, only to have their sentences later vacated after another suspect was found to be the real, apparently solo rapist. No national “wilding” craze materialized, except in media that covered the case.

The “knockout game” is no joke, but there’s no need to panic. Senseless youth violence is the point of the spear, in my view, leading to a larger social breakdown that follows young people who have too much time and too little guidance.

As a black father, I think the answer ultimately must come from parents, communities, churches and other civil society working with police and social support agencies to find the perpetrators and prevent new ones.

We also need more straight talkers like Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Speaking to a black church audience in 2011, he addressed local flash mobbers: “You have damaged your own race.”

“If you want ... anybody else to respect you and not be afraid when they see you walking down the street,” he said, “then leave the innocent people who are walking down the street minding their own damn business. Leave them alone.” Amen, Mr. Mayor. Amen.

Clarence Page is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.