Author Topic: Four young students arrested in alleged 'knockout' attacks, police say  (Read 689 times)

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rangerrebew

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Four Young Students Arrested in Alleged 'Knockout' Attacks, Police Say


By Sonja Sharp on December 19, 2013 1:51pm

community leaders in calling for an end to alleged "knockout game" attacks in Brooklyn.  View Full Caption
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CROWN HEIGHTS — Police have arrested four children in connection with a string of alleged "knockout game" attacks in Brooklyn, the NYPD said.

A 14-year-old girl and three other children, aged 10 and 11, were arrested in connection with three assaults that took place between October and November.

The victims included an 11-year-old boy who was punched on President Street, a youth who was hit with a rock while walking home from school and a youngster who was "mushed" in the face with a plastic bag, said Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon, the 71st Precinct's new commanding officer.

"Kids are kids — when you’re talking 10 and 11 year olds getting involved in these type of things, sometimes they don’t realize the magnitude of what they’re doing," Fitzgibbon said.

While the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force worked on the investigation as well, police determined that the attacks were not motivated by bias.

"Every time one of these incidents did occur, nothing was ever said with regard to any kind of bias, so to speak," Fitzgibbon said of the three attacks, which occurred in October and November.

"The only commonality is that basically all the victims were Jewish."

Police made the arrests after zeroing in on the neighborhood's middle-schoolers, who were both the victims and the suspects of several of the attacks.

"The knockouts that we were experiencing seemed a lot towards youngsters," Fitzgibbon said. "My school team did a lot of work uncovering information, and the Hate Crimes team did a lot of good work following up on that information.

"When people saw we were able to actually solve one of these incidents, word gets around to the local schools and to the kids that might be involved or haven’t been caught."

It was not immediately clear if the three incidents were part of the so-called "knockout game," in which teens sucker-punch strangers in an attempt to knock them out, then flee without taking anything from them.

The youths were arrested between Nov. 13 and Nov. 23 and were charged with assault, endangerment and criminal mischief, Fitzgibbon said.

The names of the youths who were arrested were withheld by police because of their ages. The 14-year-old girl is being processed through the Family Court system, but updates on her case and the cases against the other three children was not immediately available.

Police are still investigating several other potential knockout incidents involving older victims.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131219/crown-heights/four-young-students-arrested-alleged-knockout-attacks-police-say
« Last Edit: December 27, 2013, 01:46:33 pm by rangerrebew »

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Re: Four young students arrested in alleged 'knockout' attacks, police say
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2013, 02:07:31 pm »
Quote
"The only commonality is that basically all the victims were Jewish."
I suspect there was a "commonality" with the assailants, but we're not talking about it.
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Re: Four young students arrested in alleged 'knockout' attacks, police say
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2013, 02:38:57 pm »
In other news:
Quote
HOUSTON (AP) — A white Houston-area man was arrested Thursday on federal hate crimes charges for allegedly shooting video of himself sucker-punching a 79-year-old black man in a "knockout game"-style attack.

Conrad Alvin Barrett, 27, made a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy, who scheduled a detention hearing for the Katy man on Friday.

According to prosecutors, the attack happened Nov. 24 in Katy, but it wasn't until 12 days later that authorities connected the attack to the cellphone video of it.

Authorities learned of the case because Barrett allegedly showed the video on the night of the attack to an off-duty arson investigator he had just met at a restaurant in nearby Folshear. According to the criminal complaint, Barrett asked the off-duty investigator and the woman with the investigator if they knew about the knockout game. He told them he played earlier that day, then showed them the video, prosecutors allege.

The investigator then flagged down a uniformed officer across the street and led him to Barrett.

The attack video doesn't show Barrett's face, but investigators matched his voice to the voice in the video and the couple at the restaurant told investigators that Barrett was wearing the same shorts and shoes at the person who shot the video.

According to prosecutors, the video shows Barrett approach the victim and ask, "How's it going, man?" A "loud smack" is then heard, the victim falls to the ground, Barrett laughs and says, "Knockout." The assailant then flees in his vehicle.

The victim lost three teeth and needed surgery to repair his jaw, which had been broken in two places. He was hospitalized for more than four days, authorities said.

Investigators retrieved other videos from Barrett's phone, including some in which he uses racial epithets and talks about trying to work up the courage to play the knockout game, the complaint states. In one, Barrett says: "That plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?"

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson said Thursday that such crimes won't be tolerated.

"Evidence of hate crimes will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted with the assistance of all our partners to the fullest extent of the law," Magidson said.

Barrett's attorney, George Parnham, said Barrett has bipolar disorder and has been prescribed heavy medications to treat it. He said Barrett's family "feels horribly sympathetic" for the person who was attacked.

"When you start peeling back the layers of the onion and look at the mindset behind the action you soon realize there's a mental issue," said Parnham, who added that he's trying to gather as much information about Barrett's mental health as possible.

If convicted of the hate crime charge, Barrett could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.
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Re: Four young students arrested in alleged 'knockout' attacks, police say
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2013, 12:56:20 am »
So why aren't all the black players of this "game" who've attacked white victims being charged with federal hate crimes?

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Re: Four young students arrested in alleged 'knockout' attacks, police say
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2013, 01:02:07 am »
Nope.  No hate crimes here.  Black people cannot be guilty of any racial crimes by reason of their race...or something along those lines.  The agenda is set by Just-Us and changes with the political winds.