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(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.
This beating is “tough to watch,” said the news anchor. But when it comes to black on white violence caught on video, that does not narrow it down much. This one is in Lexington, Ky., from WLEX news. “And we do warn you: Some may find the images disturbing.”
But hardly unique.
The reporter was introducing her viewers to a recently released video of black man attacking a white college student waiting for a bus. The assault begins with a close-up of the man who is about to ask the college student for a cigarette.
When the student says no, the black man briefly turns away, then turns back to unleash a punch to the other man’s face. Knocking him down.
“At first glance, police thought that this was a case of what has been dubbed the Knockout Game,” said reporter Kristen Pflum. “A heinous random act of violence seen sweeping the country lately. Unfortunately though, the suspect landed several more punches.”
That, apparently, disqualified this assault from being considered a Knockout Game because it violated the unwritten rules of the anonymous governing body that decides these kind of things.
That is why so many editors still insist the Knockout Game and other forms of racial violence are urban legends, even as the attacks continue around the country. Even as more and more victims, videos, witnesses and stories emerge, almost all saying the same thing: The people doing the attacking are black. The victims are not.
Even as a judge in St. Louis said last year one person alone in St. Louis had played the Knockout Game 300 times.
But many insist there is no Knockout Game. No racial violence. Things happen.
Real or not, the attacker kept punching the fallen college student for almost a minute, then ran away. The student was left with broken bones around his eye, a broken nose and other injuries authorities like to call “minor.”
The police detectives were quick to assure us the attack was “random.”
“He doesn’t know who the suspect is,” said Det. Rob Sarrantonio of the Lexington Police Department. “He was shown photos of the suspect. It was just a random act of violence.”
But just like a disproportionate number of other “random” attacks, some wonder why police and reporters are so quick to use the word “random” for violence that has a clear, non-random pattern.
“Even an untrained eye can see that these cross-country assaults are not random,” said Taleeb Starkes, author of “The Uncivil War.” “Impulsive? Maybe. But random? No. These crimes can’t be random when they almost always feature black assailants and non-black victims, be they white or Asian or gay or young or old. Furthermore, the constant re-defining of what the Knockout Game is or isn’t, in attempt to trivialize these barbaric acts is getting old.”
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police arrested this week five people who starred in another “hard to watch” video of black mob violence. This one took place in a food court at the Lindale Mall. It featured about dozen black people fighting, screaming, throwing chairs, hitting each other with chairs, destroying property and lots of other mayhem.
The arrests came two weeks after the riot made its debut on WorldStarHipHop.com. It has attracted more than 800.000 viewers. Police say they expect more arrests.
In New York City, several media outlets had pronounced the Knockout Game to be a fad that was over. If it ever existed at all. Then on Sunday, it happened again, this time in Vinegar Hill in Brooklyn.
Vinegar Hill is the kind of place Spike Lee was talking about last week in a widely publicized rant against white people moving into black neighborhoods. He said it was racist that services and public safety never improved until gentrification came and white people moved in and ruined everything.
One hundred years ago, Vinegar Hill was a center of black commerce, culture and arts. In the 1960s the federal government declared it was “blighted.” Many of the older homes and commercial districts were torn down, replaced with public housing projects.
Which of course today are blighted – and sit side by side with newer, expensive condos and refurbished homes. Many of the white residents think they are good citizens for rebuilding a bad neighborhood. But a resident of one such neighborhood said after he moved in, he and his neighbors felt trapped in the expensive new homes. He said they felt as if they were targets for black on white crime and violence.
Like the kind that happened last Sunday afternoon when one of the newer white residents of Vinegar Hill was walking her dog when four black people assaulted her.
“They hid behind cars and surprised her, punching her in the face and back of the head,” said a public service announcement from a community group in a neighborhood called Dumbo. “The kids ran into the projects after being chased. It is disgusting and scary that this could have been any one of us.”
Adam Meshburg told the Gothamist the assault was an example of the Knockout Game, because during the beating, “they didn’t take anything and had plenty of opportunity to.”
A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to characterize the attack as part of the Knockout Game trend, saying police have never labeled any of the previous assaults as such, reported the Gothamist.
Brooklyn is the site of frequent racial violence, sometimes on video, often directed at a community of Orthodox Jews. New York city councilwoman Laurie Cumbo explained it simply and politely: Black people don’t like Jews: “the accomplishments of the Jewish community trigger feelings of resentment, and a sense that Jewish success is not also their success.”
In Milwaukee this week, Chris Grell was shoveling snow to make extra money for his wife and three kids when a black man punched him in the face. Knocking him out.
Milwaukee media won’t release a description but others in Milwaukee did. They are, however, curiously sure of one thing: This was not a case of the Knockout Game. From WTMJ TV news:
“Milwaukee police cannot confirm it’s a case of Knockout, but do tell us that like the brutal game, Grell was not robbed. On the other hand, Knockout attacks involve more than one suspect, and they get a rise of out inflicting pain. This case saw just one suspect.”
There are those mysterious rules again.
Knockout Game or not, racial violence proceeds apace in more traditional forms in the rest of the country.
In Denver, five black people are responsible for at least 18 robberies in the last six weeks. The group is robbing people on the street and in stores, probably using stolen cars to get away. This week, police released surveillance pictures of their hoodie-clad faces.
Denver has been the scene of dozens of examples of black mob violence over the last four years. Including several on New Year’s Day. At least one media outlet remembered, at least partially.
“In 2009 and 2011 there were a series of attacks in the downtown Denver area where African-Americans were targeting whites and Hispanics,” said the NBC affiliate reporting on the New Years attacks. “According to police reports, in the New Year’s Day cases, the victims were white men and they reported their attackers were black.”
In the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, four black people were arrested for robbing and assaulting an 11-year old boy who was carrying dinner home to his mother. After police posted their pictures on Facebook, the four turned themselves in when parents saw the pictures on TV news.
In Washington, D.C., local police released a video of a flash mob robbery at an upscale Georgetown clothing store. Unlike the journalists in Kentucky, none of the big time, big city reporters seemed overly disturbed.
At the NBC affiliate, National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame member Jim Vance opened the report by describing the robbers as a group of teenagers.
Fellow NABJ member Shomari Stone reported from the field, providing a similar description.
The recently released video from Feb. 20 shows a dozen “teenagers” rushing into the upscale True Religion Brand jeans store, gathering thousands of dollars worth of clothing, and rushing out. It does not appear that any of the clerks tried to stop them in any way.
Neither of the reporters mentioned all of the dozen marauders in this attack – and many others like it in Washington and around the country – were black.
Shomari Stone made a national splash in 2011 in downtown Seattle when he and his camera crew came upon an assault in progress. Stone threw his body over the victim to protect him from the beating.
Media Bistro provided the twist: Stone saved a white supremacist: “When the victim, whose arms were covered in swastika tattoos, approached Stone to thank him after the incident, Stone, who is African-American, told the man, ‘Remember to judge the man by his character and not the color of his skin.'”
Now that would make an interesting discussion at the next national meeting of the NABJ.
See a trailer for “White Girl Bleed a Lot”:
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