The Knockout Game

Many social trends become controversial. One such trend of late is a game called the Knockout Game. In this "game," the goal is to throw a punch someone completely random and oblivious to everything and knock that person out- basically throwing a sucker punch at somebody. All the while... trying to video tape the knockout attempt. Hence the name "knockout" game. As one would imagine, this is very disturbing. After all, YOU could be the person someone may attempt to knock out with one punch. You are going to be completely oblivious and unaware someone may randomly come up and try to knock you out with one punch.

This "Knockout Game" is one of many things that make us really sad as a society. It is one of those things where we can't seem to live our lives without having at least some hint that disaster or some sort of attacker will strike.

Inspiration for This Post.

There was one recent case of this Knockout Game that got me to blog about this topic. Recently here in the Houston area back in November 2013, a 27-year old Caucasian male was charged with a hate crime for breaking the jaw of a 79-year old Black male in a "Knockout Game" style punch. If that isn't bad enough, the one who attacked the elderly man was trying to see if he could make national headlines. Here is the quote this person made regarding his motive for punching the elderly man: "That plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?" To read more about this incident, take a look at this article from Comcast, by way of the Associated Press: 'Knockout game' attack leads to hate crime charge.

Here is video insight on the Knockout Game based on the incident I just mentioned. WARNING: the video coverage of the Knockout Game in work may be discomforting to watch:


^ ""Knockout game" assault leads to hate crime cha..."

Thoughts on the "Knockout Game."

The Knockout Game is a disturbing social trend that is truly heartless. That's right- heartless. It isn't cool. It isn't cute. It is simply about being some punk trying to be cool. I may sound wimpy and uncool to some people just because I talk so much about spreading positivity and rewarding positive acts, but at least being a kind person is better than being some kind of jerk. One thing that disturbed me about this whole Knockout Game from the recent incident here in Houston is that the guy who attacked the elderly person wanted to see if he could make national headlines. So in addition to being a total jerk, the guy also wanted to get attention.

Anything to disrupt society through the means of random violence disgusts me and makes entire communities and societies sad. The Knockout Game is one of those disgusting acts to disrupt society. The people who take part in the Knockout Game don't care about the well-being of others. Random people- completely oblivious, unaware, and likely did nothing to influence someone to deserve a Knockout Game punch are the ones who take the worst of these sick acts. I was always sort of raised on the principles of not retaliating against someone unless provoked. People who become the victims of Knockout Game violence didn't do anything to deserve being struck (and potentially knocked out) on just one sucker punch.

There are some social trends that become popular and "cute." And then, there are some social trends that desecrate and disrupt society for what it is. People attacked in these "Knockout Game" incidents are the victims of these horrible sucker punch attacks. They didn't do anything to deserve to get punched and knocked out. Basically, such people who participate in this "Knockout Game" are part of this "because I can" crowd as far as the motivation to perform such punches. Because one can deliver these knockout punches to unsuspecting people, one basically proves just how low one can stoop in modern society. Such people set such poor examples to society. The people who do these Knockout Game attacks don't care about setting poor examples- all they want is to be "cool." Well, if you're trying to prove yourself by performing something like this, congratulations- you successfully proven yourself to be a total and complete idiot. In addition, you are contributing to how much more people want to ruin other peoples' lives rather than help make others' lives better in this negative world we live in.

This Knockout Game trend will likely be passé, as any other sort of trend. It will slowly die off. Its impact to society will likely still sting despite its passing. Regardless, the Knockout Game is just another example of something that leads us to continue feeling like we can't live one day out of life without needing to be on alert to defend ourselves from attackers.





What do you think about this "Knockout Game?" Feel free to share your thoughts here and thank you for reading!

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