At first there were games like hand ball, tether ball and four square.
Then came aggressive games like “wall ball,” “bloody knuckles” and “quarters,” that leave some injured in the end.
Apparently those games weren’t tough enough for people, because now we have the Knockout Game, a game that shouldn’t exist.
The name says it all: knock out. People knock out unsuspecting victims off the street.
When it first began, people just thought the victims were attacked for reasons of dislike or hate.
No one thought the reason would be for the amusement of friends.
In New York, police were investigating these recent incidents as possible hate crimes, because this was happening to the Jewish community. Police believed the attackers were targeting victims for their background.
New York’s problem may be an ethnicity thing, but in other cities it was clear the victims were anyone the suspect wanted them to be.
In Washington D.C., a woman was attacked by bikers and sucker punched in the back of the head.
To some it wasn’t a big deal until Sept. 13, when a 13-year-old boy was sentenced to 18 months in jail for punching a 51-year-old man, killing him.
“The teen said he and his friends were playing a street game called ‘knockout.’ His punch apparently had little to no effect, but the follow-up from a 16-year-old boy caused bleeding in the victim’s brain, and he died in late May,” according to FOXNY news.
It’s crazy how one person can make up a game and so many people are willing to follow along like this.
But not everyone is surprised by this new trend and how ridiculous people are becoming. One Delta student believes this is just another one of a series of modern day pranks.
“How can you be surprised. You’re talking about the same society that came up with things like teepeeing, flame bags with dog crap in them. So to me this isn’t a surprise, it’s what I expect. It’s sad but true,” said Noe Ruiz.
Not everyone believes the Knockout Game is a trend.
The NYPD doesn’t believe all this is a trend. The department believes the knockouts are simply assaults.
In an editorial in the New York Post, Thomas Sowell reflected similar sentiments that this game is not new.
“[A]uthorities in New York seem to have been caught by surprise, even though this knockout game has been played for years by young black gangs in other cities and other states, against people besides Jews — the victims being either whites in general or people of Asian ancestry,” wrote Sowell. “Sometimes, the attacks are reported, but only as isolated attacks by unspecified ‘teens’ or ‘young people’ against unspecified victims, without any reference to the racial makeup of the attackers or the victims — and with no mention of racial epithets by the young hoodlums exulting in their own ‘achievement.’”
When I really think of what this all means to me, I think of two words: pathetic and sad.
It’s pathetic because just this alone shows the way people have come to be. Humanity has reached a new low.
Playing sports and video games or partying isn’t enough to keep people preoccupied. You have to create harm in society for those who do nothing to bother you.
It’s sad because I am apart of this generation that continues to assault random people, realizing this will not be the last thing that disappoints me about my generation.
What if I witness someone walk up to a person in front of me and knock that person out?
People should try to understand how it would feel to be attacked like that.
I’m not saying go out and be a super hero, and knock them out back, but those of us around should help call police and make sure it stops.