25 Nov 2013 Sharpton Late With “Knockout Game” Criticism

For being a self-appointed leader of the black Americans, the Reverend Al Sharpton seemed to be a little late to the game when it came to denouncing the hate crime that is being called the “knockout game.”

In an apparently horrific logical progression of flash mob thievery and posted fight videos, there is a growing number of incidents in which thugs — usually younger and black —attempt to knock people out — usually older and white, and often Jewish — with one punch.  Three deaths are linked to knockout game assaults.

In one attack that led to an arrest being processed as a hate crime, a 28-year-old Trinidadian man punched a 24-year-old Orthodox Jewish man in New York City.  The victim noted that a group of men approached him while making anti-Semitic comments and mentioning the knockout game before the actual assault occurred.

With such assaults being videotaped and appearing on-line and on the news, Will Marling of the National Organization for Victim Assistance noted: “As experience shows, other kids will see this is an easy thing to do, and then it becomes groupthink.”  The man charged, however, is 28 — not a kid, not even under ObamaCare standards.

But back to Sharpton.  Allen West spoke out against the knockout game last week.  Thomas Sowell publicly spoke out against it before that.  It took until this past weekend for Sharpton to agree with black conservatives that the knockout game “is deplorable and must be condemned by all us.”

Sharpton is allegedly going to meet with other self-appointed black leaders soon to figure out a “next move.”

Hopefully, that meeting will include the NAACP.  A Google search of “NAACP” and “knockout game” found no instances of the nation’s oldest and most famous civil rights group taking the time to denounce this new wave of hate crime.  Ditto for the Southern Poverty Law Center.  But the NAACP, instead, is very concerned that students at San Jose State University charged with non-violent hate crimes need to get their charges upgraded to felonies.

Members of the National Center’s Project 21 black leadership network are speaking out about this lack of responsibility among the professional civil rights lobby and the self-appointed black leadership in the United States.  After all, when a real racial hate crime appears to have presented itself, they have failed to step up in a timely manner as they seem to do when more politically advantageous and media-friendly situations present themselves.

For example, Project 21 member Deroy Murdock — a New York City resident — said:

A brutal and sometimes fatal pattern of attacks known as “the knockout game” has become America’s latest social pathology.

This evil practice’s anti-white nature is revealed by its synonym.  This crime’s overwhelmingly black perpetrators call it “polar bear hunting.”  Unlike polar bears, the white and often Jewish victims of this mayhem are not big enough to neutralize these horrid thugs.

So-called black leaders should denounce this carnage loudly, as should all good people.  Meanwhile, police, prosecutors, judges, and wardens should do everything they can to stop, charge, try and jail these hooligans.

A decade or two behind bars might teach these punks some badly needed self-control.

Additionally, Project 21 member and Washington, D.C. native Kevin Martin said:

It seems that only after being confronted publicly by New York’s Jewish community, conservative blacks and the conservative media that Al Sharpton found the courage to condemn the rash of assaults — hate crimes — that are gripping many urban areas in America.

While Sharpton’s condemnation of the knockout game is welcomed, even as delayed as it is, the fact that the self-appointed black leadership has been silent for so long speaks volumes about their integrity.  It has also given, thus far, silent approval to those committing these mostly racial assaults.

We heard countless public statements of condemnation about the shooting of Trayvon Martin from the civil rights community, politicians, including from the President.  Yet in the case of the knockout game, these same forces have mostly been silent while the list of victims continues to grow.

The knockout game has even turned deadly in some cases.  It is time for the rest of the civil rights establishment to join Al Sharpton, Project 21 members and other black conservatives in condemning these reckless actions.

America needs an all hands on deck public condemnation of this barbaric activity.

Project 21 member Christopher Arps has this to add about the “knockout game” and the slow awakening of the civil rights establishment to its dangers:

The so-called “knockout game” is receiving much-needed attention in the conservative media, but — unfortunately — not so much among the mainstream media.

Last week, the Drudge Report and the Fox News Channel highlighted this dangerous “game” that is played by allegedly “bored” African-American teenagers.  In its aftermath, are broken bones, the shattered personal security of its victims and — in a few cases — murder.

Although the knockout game is now receiving national attention, those of us living in St. Louis have been well aware of this crime since at least 2011.  In that year, four incidents of the knockout game were reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, with the murder of an elderly Vietnamese immigrant being the most prominent:

Yen Nguyen told authorities that Murphy walked up to her husband, grabbed his jacket and punched him in the head, causing him to fall to the ground, court records say.  Murphy then punched Yen Nguyen in the eye, causing severe bruises and an eye socket fracture.  A second man kicked Hoang Nguyen in the abdomen, injuring his ribs.  Hoang Nguyen died later Saturday of his injuries at St. Louis University Hospital.

Almost as tragic as this senseless violent act and loss of life is the utter silence — until Saturday — of the so-called leaders of the civil rights industry.

I applaud Reverend Sharpton for finally speaking out, but why did it take intense media scrutiny in order for this happen?  Also, why is Sharpton the only one condemning the knockout game?  My theory is that it’s predicated on two things.

One, it is an unwritten rule in our community that you don’t criticize black folks in public.  Look at how Bill Cosby was pilloried a couple of years ago for demanding inner city parents control their children and teach them proper English.  This exposure of our dirty laundry in public is the equivalent of being an “Uncle Tom.”  On Sunday mornings at our churches and when we are amongst ourselves, however, the very things Cosby admonished us about are spoken about freely and his advice applauded.

Second, the civil rights industry’s very existence depends on the legacy of slavery and past discrimination remaining prominent in our collective psyche.  Once we stop blaming these things for the stagnation and decay in the black underclass — even right now — then we must take responsibility for our 50 percent high school drop out rates, 70 percent illegitimacy, homicide being the number one cause of death for black youth aged 15-24 and, of course, the knockout game.