It is nice to see that the knockout game is finally getting the media’s attention. For months, the mainstream media has been silent on this story. Fox News gave this story national attention last month when it announced that a series of attacks had been made involving black teens that appeared to be playing a game that involved knocking out their potential victims. In an episode of the O’Reilly Factor that aired on November 19th, O’Reilly and guest Bernie Goldberg discussed not only the silence from the national media on this story, but the fact that the victims from these attacks, appeared to be “white” victims.  From what we know about the “Knockout Game” so far, it appears that it is a game, perpetrated by black teens who approach an unsuspecting victim, sucker punch them with the intent of knocking them out cold and then fleeing the scene. The attacks are video taped and put on YouTube or other sites. The game has also proven to be deadly as some of the victims have died from these violent attacks. Regardless, this story appeared to be hidden by the mainstream who later attacked Fox for pointing that out. The New York Times published an article trying to minimize the story as a possible “urban myth”, the Huffington Post reported that the knockout game was the most over-covered story of 2013, thanks to Fox News and even CNN chimed in when they reported  on an account by victim Phoebe Connolly, as a “possible” victim of the game citing New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly:

The press has named it the so-called knockout game. We don’t discount that that exists. It’s a possibility. We’ve investigated and will continue to investigate.

Although it isn’t certain how long the knockout game has been around, it appears that an incident was reported as early as the year 2011. In May of this year, Elix Murphy who is now 20, was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years, in the city of St Louis, for the killing of a Vietnamese immigrant as part of the game.  That was 2 years ago when the incident occurred. However, some authorities as well as some psychologists have claimed that the assault game has been around for years.

Last month, NYC police charged Amrit Marajh with assault as a hate crime when he allegedly assaulted a 24 year old Jewish man. Today, a white man in Texas was charged with a hate crime for targeting a black man as part of the knockout game. FEDERAL authorities charged and arrested 27 year old Conrad Alvin Barrett after the Justice Department filed a complaint on Tuesday and made the arrest today. It appears that Barrett recorded his attack on the 79 year old black victim who had a broken jaw as a result of his injuries.  Barrett made the claim that:

“The plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?”

In my opinion, Barrett’s actions are clearly unacceptable. Most of us do not condone this type of behavior. It does not matter to us whether the attacks come from a black teen or a white male. It is still an assault and clearly punishment for this type of action is in order. But what makes this different from the other attacks?  Why the interest from the Justice Dept. on this incident that separates it from all the others? At the risk of being labeled a “racist” again, yes I will dare to enter this territory.  There have been some arrests made in connection with the knockout game. They have mostly been made at the local level and have not involved federal authorities and have NOT been labeled  hate crimes. Many of the victims of this game have been “white” and hate crime charges are virtually non-existent. According to the Justice Department, this instance involves a 79 year-old black man and therefore they would step in with federal charges. But where is the Justice Department on the crimes involving a black man assaulting a white victim? How are they distinguishing the two crimes? By not labeling it a crime committed because of “race”, I’m assuming that it does not fit their guidelines and therefore would not constitute it a hate crime. I’m not sure what the reasoning is. Although his actions were severe, Barrett’s message may not be so far off after all. Will his crime get national attention from the mainstream media? Will the Sharpton”s, Jackson’s and Holder’s step up their efforts on hate crimes against African Americans? We all know they were all out in full force during the George Zimmerman trial. I’m curious to see how this story will resonate in the media. Let’s just wait and see…