What first seemed like a random string of assault attacks, does not appear to be random anymore. Although the attacks originally started sporadically in large cities outside of New York, over the past few weeks New York City has become the epicenter of the attacks known as the “knockout game”. Although the perpetrators have been reported to be teenagers and young adults, some as young as twelve or thirteen years old, the nature of the assaults do not resemble that of child’s play. Victims of these attacks are innocent pedestrians who are blind-sighted with a blow to the head, with the intent to cause a concussion, or “knockout” the victim. The innocent victims of these attacks are at best left lying on the pavement, and some of these attacks have been reported to even be fatal. Police are speculating that the object of this so-called game is to knock out the unsuspecting individual with once punch.
What first seemed like a random string of assault attacks, does not appear to be random anymore. Although the attacks originally started sporadically in large cities outside of New York, over the past few weeks New York City has become the epicenter of the attacks known as the “knockout game”. Although the perpetrators have been reported to be teenagers and young adults, some as young as twelve or thirteen years old, the nature of the assaults do not resemble that of child’s play. Victims of these attacks are innocent pedestrians who are blind-sighted with a blow to the head, with the intent to cause a concussion, or “knockout” the victim. The innocent victims of these attacks are at best left lying on the pavement, and some of these attacks have been reported to even be fatal. Police are speculating that the object of this so-called game is to knock out the unsuspecting individual with once punch.Not only do these sporadic assaults seem to be connected, the recent “knockout” attacks have called into question the possible underlying motivation of anti-Semitism. Having an already notorious tumultuous history between the African American and Jewish communities in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the recent attacks have re-sparked controversy after a number of the victims of the latest “knockout” attacks have been members of the Jewish community. In November, a man was charged with third-degree assault and with assault as a hate crime after allegedly punching twenty-four year old Shmuel Perl, a Jewish man in Crown Heights. This is not the first of the attacks allegedly aimed towards Jews. Other reported Jewish victims include a seventy-eight year old woman, a young boy walking to yeshiva, a nineteen-year old man walking on the street, and several others.
As if the attacks alone were not disturbing enough, the glorification of these attacks have gone viral on social media. Many of these attacks have been recorded, and posted on several social media sites. This trend raises suspicion on several accounts. The fact that there is footage of these attacks, and thus someone must find it fascinating enough to capture and share the videos on the internet, is proof that these attacks are somewhat of a joke to the perpetrators. In addition, it must be a group act if someone is deliberately there at the scene and capturing the attacks by video.
Several of the knockout videos have hundreds of thousands of views, and a similar corresponding number of shares to other social media sites. These attacks are glorified, and social media has become the new medium for these perpetrators to share these horrific scenes with their eager viewers. In an era where social media is captivating hundreds of millions of followers, these recent viral videos are abusing the power of social media to spread messages of crime and violence. And in doing so, they are captivating an eager vast audience of teenagers. With such a captivated audience, and violent videos being mistaken for a source of entertainment, it raises uneasiness about the newfound role of social media and entertainment.
In light of the recent “knockout” attacks, and the still raw emotions elicited by the recent shootings at the Garden State Plaza Mall and Bryant Park, it has become evident that violent acts have started to become a recurring trend. The recent shootings in Midtown, New Jersey, and the seemingly anti-Semitic driven assaults hit close to home for Stern students.
Chaya Kanarfogel, SCW ’15 and a Bergen County resident, expresses her uneasiness about these recent events, “It was shocking to hear that such things could be happening here, so close to home. You think that you walk around completely safe in an environment protected by justice. At first, I didn’t see much of a significance of the scary events happening so close to each other, but because they did turn out that was, I think I became more aware of them as they happened, and have become more cautious of my surroundings.”
To many, the recent violent attacks are a rude wake-up call. Although we live in a sheltered environment where the nerve-wracking outside world often seems to be a hushed lull, we unfortunately live in a world where violence is becoming a trend, attacks are publicized as a form of entertainment, and anti-Semitism is still rampant. These recent events should not scare us, but rather cause us to question the state of morality in our society today.