Joy Reid Should Listen To Her Colleague, Al Sharpton On The Knockout Game

Now I don’t know if Joy Reid is pretending there are only two videos out there and “no discernable trend” because the truth is inconvenient to liberalism, or she is so insulated from reality in her left wing bubble over there that she really doesn’t know what’s going on.

But by now pretty much everyone but the most willfully blind have figured out that these knock-out game attacks are happening, appear to be a growing trend, and appear to be expressions of racial animosity.

The St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV reported last month:

“One-hitter quitter,” “knock em’ and drop em,” “point em’ out and knock ’em out” are all names for a disturbing trend now drawing concern nationwide.

In Pittsburgh, a teacher was punched so hard he collapsed head first into the concrete curb. A man in Brooklyn was also knocked unconscious. And even women are being attacked.

Woman viciously beaten in south St. Louis in possible “knockout game” attack

There have been seven recent cases in New York City alone. And the game has turned fatal in at least four documented attacks–in Syracuse, N.Y.; St. Louis; Chicago; and Hoboken, N.J., site of the latest fatal attack.

Boys–seen in video from a security camera after the incident–have been charged with the murder. They are just 13 and 14 years old.

The Knockout game isn’t even a new trend. It’s been going on for years. In July of  2011 The American Thinker published a piece entitled, The Knockout Game: Racial Violence and the Conspicuous Silence of the Media:

The knockout game involves “unprovoked attacks on innocent bystanders,” according to police who have had to deal with it.  A retired officer explained, “Normally it was a group of black males, one of which would strike him as hard as he could in the face, attempting to knock him out with one punch,” says retired Sgt. Don Pizzo.  The victims are typically not robbed, but simply punched with no provocation.  Such attacks have been reported in Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Jersey.

Sgt. Pizzo noted that the attacks fit a pattern: “black attackers on a white victim — and the victim was often an older person walking alone.”  In a thorough and sensible piece on the subject in a local arts and entertainment magazine, eight of the victims interviewed were white, one was black, and one was Latino.  All of the attackers, or “players,” were black.  Some witnesses claim that they have white relatives who play the game and that therefore the game is not a racial issue.  But anyone who reviews the reporting — when race is revealed, at least — will see that the attackers are predominantly if not exclusively black.

As one player of the game says, “[w]e used to walk to where a lot of people be at and hit ’em. If one of the homeboys didn’t knock him out, then the other would come. Whoever knock him out would be king.”

The truth is, this violent, criminal behavior has been ignored by the media for years. Now that it’s getting some attention, instead of pretending that it is a non-story blown out of proportion, shouldn’t Reid use her microphone to say something constructive, like her colleague Al Sharpton did, last month, at the Huffington Post?

There is nothing funny or even remotely entertaining about attacking innocents walking down the street. This is not a “game”; it is inhumane behavior that has no place in our country or the world.

He said, “silence is akin to tacit acceptance” and announced that he would be meeting with  “other leaders to address our next moves regarding this crisis.”

As one who has fought for greater civil rights for all, I cannot watch this travesty unfold. We can discuss the many factors that may lead to this sort of destructive behavior, whether it be poverty, unemployment, etc., but at the end of the day, there is no excuse ever to bestow violence on others. There is no justification for brutally punching or attacking a person in this manner. 

These kids must be held accountable, and then they must receive the right guidance and mentorship to halt any further damage. In our own communities, we must work harder to spot disastrous behavior and intervene before anything horrific like these attacks take place.

(Emphasis mine.)