Fed-up lawmakers want stiff penalties for 'Knockout Game'
WND
'These thugs are nothing but punks and cowards'
The “Knockout Game” attacks that have made headlines across the nation over the last few weeks are being targeted by public protests and downplayed by the media.
But there’s a group that appears focused on going right to the core of the problem – the criminals themselves.
According to a report at the Afro blog, Dean Kaufert, Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin, wants faster prosecution and stiffer penalties for such offenses.
“This is not a child’s prank, this is a serious crime where innocent victims are assaulted, injured and in some instances even killed, and it should be treated that way,” he said.
“We want to send any potential perpetrator of this senseless violence the message that if they do this in Wisconsin they will face serious criminal consequences, not a slap on the wrist.”
In the Knockout Game, an assailant sneaks up on an unsuspecting victim and slugs him or her as hard as he can, usually in the head. The goal is to knock the victim out with a blow, or keep hitting until the victim goes down.
Many recent cases have been documented by local TV news broadcasts posted on YouTube and in Colin Flaherty’s book “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.”
Most of the attacks have been black-on-white, part of a larger trend of black-on-white violence that also is documented in the book.
The blog also reported Hugh T. Farley, a state senator in New York, is leading a drive to crack down. His “Knockout Game Deterrent Act,” sponsored with Assemblyman Ted Tedisco, could give anyone convicted of the crime more than 20 years in prison.
He said the Knockout Game “thugs are nothing but punks and cowards, and if they think they’re some kind of ‘big shot’ for punching an unsuspecting elderly person or a mom then they should face ‘big man’ laws and do hard time.”
CBS in New York City reported Brooklyn residents rallied against the violence this week, with Leticia Smith of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church saying, “We are stressed out, but we refuse to be knocked out in our community.”
CNN, meanwhile, questioned whether the trend exists.
“CNN asks today whether these are just random attacks getting outsized media attention ro a real trend – or whether the outsized media attention is creating the tread, as NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly warns,” said a report at Hot Air.com.
The report notes the attacks themselves “are real enough, and so are the deaths and injuries.”
“Four people have been killed in similar assaults, which have nothing in common except the modus operandi. Even Al Sharpton was moved this weekend to condemn the ‘Knockout Game,’ telling a Harlem audience, ‘We would not be silent if it was the other way around.’”
On CNN, former boxer Mike Tyson said the violence made no sense.
“I just don’t know, maybe they’re just evil. There’s just some evil people,” he said.
See a trailer for “White Girl Bleed a Lot”:
VIEW VIDEO
http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/fed-up-lawmakers-want-stiff-penalties-for-knockouts/print/