(Editor's note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.) Videos linked or embedded may contain foul language and violence.
Before his encounter with the "Knockout Game" and racial violence, Paul Lane was "a lefty."
"As left as you can get," he said.
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He supported Obama. Intends to vote for Hillary. Or least he did.
That was until Nov. 7. The day everything changed for Paul. The day Kenneth Johnson walked into the Contra Costa, Calif., library and played the Knockout Game.
TRENDING: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
"It was 2:49 in the afternoon," said Lane, a librarian. "And this black guy – I won't say he was a kid, he was 21 years old – comes into the room in the library. I was helping a 67-year-old guy with history and old movies, because I know that stuff. He was smiling as if he knew the guy I was helping. Then he – Johnson – walks up to the patron and hits him on the side of the head as hard as he can."
Three weeks later, in court, when Lane told his story, Johnson's lawyer objected.
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"The witness doesn't know how hard my client can hit," said the lawyer.
Actually, he might. Lane yelled at Johnson to stop hitting the patron. He did. Then he jumped over Lane's desk and started hitting and kicking him. It got real bloody real fast.
"So the guy jumps over the library desk and started beating me. And hits me about 20 or 25 times. I can't remember exactly cause I'm kinda blocked out a bit. Yeah, he really whaled into me. He decked the patron with one punch. He hit me in the ear. In the side of the head. The top of the head. I was bleeding from the nose, eyes, mouth, ears."
Lane crawled into the other room and asked for help. Then it was over. Later, the newspapers would say the injuries were non-life threatening. Which, of course, depends on how you define life. The library walls were spattered with blood. Lane cannot pick up a book, let alone think about going back to work. He has headaches and "major concussion issues."
And other issues, maybe even bigger.
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"I'm a 58-year-old white man who work(ed) as a 'liberal librarian' in Northern California," he said. "Not your typical WND reader, but as a research librarian I read a lot of news sources. And this attack was exactly the way you describe in your book and articles. Exactly the same."
Lane was referring to "White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It."
Johnson left the library the same way he arrived — his mother drove him. But in their rush to get away, first they could not start their car. Then Johnson insisted on taking the wheel. His erratic driving made him easy to find. Within 30 minutes he was in police custody.
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Then the real games began. Ralph Malatesta knows them well. Two years ago, he was the victim of a similar attack 3,000 miles away in Delaware. The police caught his attackers, bloodied and bruised, after Malatesta refused to turn over his money.
"It turns out they had been on a robbery spree in that neighborhood for weeks," said Malatesta. "And five people were willing to press charges. But every time it came up for a trial, we would all show up in court, but the robbers asked for a continuance. So the five other people got sick of the delay and stopped showing up. But I stuck with it and they were eventually convicted."
Johnson and his lawyer are using the same playbook. So far, they have delayed the court proceedings at least twice. But that doesn't matter to Lane.
"They canceled it to see if I would really show up the next time. I did. It's very exhausting and I do not have any stamina as a result of the beating. But I'm not giving up."
Meanwhile, in the local papers, police say they want help with the case. Especially the motive. They just can't figure out why Johnson did what he was alleged to have done. Why anyone would.
Maybe they should call former Michigan prison psychologist Marlin Newburn. He spent 30 years in the criminal justice system learning about motives and racial violence. And hatred. Up close and personal. He has seen a lot of this: The violence is about hate. And the hate is about race.
To people who practice this type of racial violence, all non-blacks are the enemy since they were weaned on the idea that whites/Asians/Hispanics/Martians were "keeping my people down."
They may be functionally illiterate, and I have yet to meet one that wasn't, but their older family members or people in their neighborhood along with the popular culture drove that early message into their skulls.
They believe that they have some black toxic-tribal license to attack, and the more brutal, the more "down with the struggle" they are. The degree of viciousness also demonstrates just how manly (or womanly) they are. In other words, the more sadistic, the higher the social and personal power status.
It's also great street cred for them, the sacred status for assaulting the all-pervasive and imaginary white power structure, and in regard to Asians and Hispanics, those people are just "takin' jobs" from them.
The people who practice this kind of racial violence — like the Knockout Game — have imaginary, social injustice tags as legitimate reasons to assault all non-blacks.
To say the black assaults on non-blacks isn't racist is a blatant lie. Black predators are racist to the bone. Most all live the part in prison.
As Lane's case winds through the system, Lane is keeping an eye on all the media coverage the Knockout Game is receiving all over the country. He has a hard time believing what he is reading – and hearing.
"I listen to left-wing radio," he says. "And I could not believe it when I heard my favorite radio personality – Stephanie Miller – say the Knockout Game does not exist. That's crazy."
Lane's entire life is upside down. He and his wife are moving to a safer place. He probably won't be able to return to work. At least for a while.
"I can't get beat again," he says. "I'll die. I'm a liberal Obama supporter, but that didn't stop the violence on me. I have serious concussion issues and my trust for young African-American men in particular is now less than zero."
Post Script: The New York Times continues to insist the Knockout Game is a myth.
See a trailer for "White Girl Bleed a Lot":