A few weeks ago a Jewish teenager was riding his bike on E. Antisdale in South Euclid and for “no reason” a teen on the street hit him flat in the face. The teen was surrounded by other youths with backpacks who just looked on. The Jewish kid recovered consciousness and could not recall what happened. At the time it seemed just a random event but recently news stories have indicated that it may be part of a new and very dangerous crime trend. At this point, this is the only incident affecting the Cleveland Jewish community to our knowledge.
(From WikiPedia) “Knockout, also known as the knockout game, knockout king, bombing, polar-bearing, and polar-bear hunting, is a violent activity performed by sucker punching or beating up an unsuspecting passerby. Serious injuries and deaths have been attributed to knockout.” This game is gaining ground in many metro areas, especially in NYC, and mostly among urban teens. Kids challenge each other to see if they can knock out a random victim with a single punch. There have been more than 37 recent arrest through the country and this new activity is appearing on many crime trend alerts. Links to some recent stories out-of-town appear at the end of this post.
The trend among many of these incidents is that the victims are often the most weak (either elderly or youth) and in particular many attacks have occurred in Jewish neighborhoods (Boro Park, Flatbush, Midwood) with Jewish victims. Given the demographics of the Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, and University Heights communities, there may be reason to be concerned about our own neighborhoods falling victim to this evil activity.
- Being aware of your kids and what routes they may take to get to their destination.
- Teach kids to avoid getting too close to any large groups of teens and to look for warning signs. Some of the incidents were proceeded by groups discussing how they are going “knock someone out” and showing off in advance of their crimes.
- Encourage your local police, city council, and local leaders to speak out against this awful game. Ask if they would consider announcing heightened penalties and stricter categorization of these crimes as being hate crimes, gang crimes, or similar. Suggest to local school officials that they publicize this problem and perhaps even have a moment of silence to highten awareness.
- Do not hesitate to contact local law enforcement with any information and let them do what they do so well.
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