Some people call it the Knockout Game. The CBS affiliate in New York has different name for it: “Teenage prank.” Whatever you call it, Ralph Santiago of Hoboken, N.J., is dead. He is one of three men who recently died or suffered permanent brain damage from what police call unprovoked assaults.
The rules of the Knockout Game — or the teenage prank — are same:
Start with a group of black people. Find a white person. Punch him in the face. Don’t stop until the person is knocked out or your arms get tired. Or the person is dead. The mainstream media refuse to identify how widespread these attacks are or that the skin color of the perpetrators.
The teenage prank on Santiago took place September 10, but the real damage was done in an identical attack 27 years ago. A group of youths stalked and beat Santiago near his Bronx home, leaving this father, gymnast, and artist with brain damage, unable to do anything but wander the streets in a permanent fog.
Even so, the 46-year old Santiago was a happy and religious man. When he was on the streets, however, he was also a vulnerable man. Here’s how CBS handled his senseless killing:
Santiago was followed by the three teens while walking on 3rd Street between Adams and Jefferson Streets in Hoboken on Sept. 10 when one of the juveniles threw a punch at Santiago’s head in what detectives believe was a game of ‘knockout.’
Santiago then collapsed onto the fence, wedging his neck between two iron fence posts, where he died, the prosecutor said.’
The alleged perpetrators turned themselves in when a video of them surfaced after the attack. They are in custody and charged with murder.
Ten days before that, Jesse Downs was heading to a convenience store near his home in the suburbs of Boston when he came upon a group of blacks in the middle of the afternoon. Downs had left work early to get a head start on the Labor Day weekend. His girlfriend, Melissa Merrill, told the Eagle Tribune she just happened to be driving by when she saw Downs sitting on the curb, covered in blood.
“He kept asking me, ‘Why did they jump me?’” Merrill said of how Downs reacted immediately after the attack. “He still had his money and paycheck on him. They didn’t touch it.
“They attacked him right in broad daylight, in the middle of the sidewalk,” Merrill said. “They jumped him from behind and beat him in his head for no reason.”
WHDH reports the suspects were “hitting (the victim) in the face and head.” And that one of the suspects “slammed him on his head on the pavement.”
After three brain surgeries, Downs is still in the hospital, unresponsive. His survival is still in question. Two men have been charged with assault and witness intimidation.
Last weekend, in Syracuse, Jim Gifford was beginning his Saturday the way he started every day: He walked to the local 7-11 for a newspaper, donuts, coffee, and a can of soup. At 6:08 a.m., the 70-year old Gifford was confronted by “five or six men” in their twenties.
“Award winning columnist Sean Kirst” of the local paper reports: “Two of them began striking and kicking Gifford. The beating continued after he fell to the ground.”
Kirst quotes the local police as saying it “is too early to describe it as an example of the “knockout game,” a chilling national trend involving anonymous attacks.”
Earlier this week, police arrested Romeo Williams and charged him with assault. Williams had a pending felony weapons charge outstanding. According to Syracuse.com:
At a press conference before Williams’ arraignment, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said Williams celebrated inside the convenience store after he knocked Gifford unconscious. He continued beating the unconscious man after the brief celebration, according to police.
The papers present plenty of details, save two: The assailants were black. No news about what, if any, charges the others at the attack will face.
Kirst did remind his readers that a similar attack took place in Syracuse last spring. Curiously, he reported that two people were arrested, though as many as a dozen black people were present at that attack where a 51-year old man died.
Cross-posted from WhiteGirlBleedALot.com
