"Knockout" Game Targeting Random Victims Spreading Across U.S.

There is something desperately wrong with the youth of today when they find amusement in a sick and disturbing  'game' that seems to be spreading across the U.S. even though it has been around since at least 2005. It's called "Knockout" or "King Hit" or "One Hit Knockout" and the goal is to knockout cold- with one punch- some random passerby. They call the perpetrator "The One Hitter Quitter" and it matters not the age or gender of the victim.



But sometimes it doesn't stop with the one punch, and the victim is beaten up. That's what happened to a 46-year-old Hoboken, New Jersey homeless man- Ralph Santiago, who was found with a broken neck, his head wedged between iron fence posts. And he's not the only one found dead, there have also been deaths in Syracuse, New York, and St. Louis, Missouri. So far.

A predominately black on white crime, immigrants have also been attacked including a 72-year-old Vietnamese man and his wife, in St. Louis, who were targeted back in 2011. The old man, Hoang D. Nguyen died of his injuries. And in Brooklyn they're targeting Jews. Many of the victims have been older, more fragile individuals which makes what these thugs are doing even more heinous.

This happened in London, but I'm not sure if it was just some nutter targeting this young girl in 2012 or part of this trending phenomenon.

It's apparently more prevalent than authorities are letting on. There needs to be severe punishment for those caught.

Why Do Christopher Lane and Delbert Belton Matter Less Than Trayvon Martin?

I find it interesting how very little has been said about the recent spate of senseless random murders that have been plaguing this country. The Trayvon Martin death and subsequent trial of George Zimmerman filled my Facebook feed daily. People were outraged. Yes, had Zimmerman done what he had been told-  not to pursue- Trayvon would still be alive. I wish that were the case.  He didn't deserve to die, but he wasn't the 'innocent' that everyone portrayed him to be, and we will never know exactly what went down the night Trayvon and George crossed paths during Zimmerman's neighbourhood watch patrol. But not a peep on Facebook about Australian baseball player Christopher Lane who also didn't deserve to die, and deserves as much, if not more, attention.

In Lane's case, three evil Oklahoman reprobates gunned him down while he was jogging because they were "bored" and just felt like they wanted to kill someone. Sure Christopher Lane was white, and two of his killers- 15-year-old James Edwards Jr. and 16-year-old Chancey Luna- are black, (Michael Jones, 17, who is being charged as an accessory looks like he might be bi-racial), and Edwards had posted "anti-white" statements on his Twitter feed, but this goes beyond race. It also goes beyond the gun control issue. If these kids had wanted to kill someone that night, and they didn't happen to have a gun, they would have found a way to accomplish their goal.  Look at the two Spokane, Washington teens who beat octegenarian World War II vet Delbert "Shorty" Belton so severely he later died. No gun, no knife, just their hands. They too were teens. Kenan Adams-Kinard and Demetrius Glenn, both sixteen, allegedly robbed Belton.

Who knows if race had anything to do with Christopher Lane or Delbert Belton being targeted. Maybe, maybe not. But I do know it has everything to do with raising a generation of conscienceless kids who have absolutely no moral compass. Kids who are influenced by the violent music they listen to and the violent video games they play. Kids who are obviously not taught to respect others.

Why isn't Barack Obama as outraged about these random killings as he was about Trayvon Martin's death?  Why isn't Jesse Jackson weighing in on the issue? Why do none of my Facebook 'friends'  seem to care about Belton and Lane? 

We need to address the issue of teen violence.

After Attack On Its Embassy In Iran Britain Closes Iranian Embassy and Gives Staff 48 Hours To Leave

I was under the impression that the Iranian people (especially the youth) were fed up with the lack of freedom and major oppression they've been subjected to for the  past 30 plus years. After all, wasn't it mostly students who initially galvanized the pro-democracy "Green Movement" in 2009 after what was deemed a fraudulent presidential election?   But there are still those who are so mired in that backward, Islamist mentality, that they would rather live under subjugation than live in a free society. Witness the students who attacked two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran, vandalizing and destroying property and shouting the usual "Death to" England mantra, all in full view of the Iranian police who did pretty much nothing at first.  Unlike the pro-democracy crowd who risked everything to protest against a repressive regime, these students love their religious masters.

The demonstrations were reported to have been staged by a new pro-regime group called The Muslim Students Followers of the Supreme Leader. They were protesting against tough new financial sanctions imposed by London last week over Iran's nuclear programme.

And though I believe that the attack could not have taken place without government knowledge and approval, officials deny any involvement.  One Tehran University associate professor, Mohammad Marandi,  claims that

 “It was planned and organized by the students but it was not something that came from the government. The students were telling me days before that they were planning to be there in large numbers. They said some students would try (to storm the embassy),” he said. “I don’t think the government is happy with what happened.”

But that seems unlikely.

Britain has now retaliated by closing down its Embassy in Tehran, removed all personnel for their own safety, and has ordered the closure of the Iranian Embassy in London. Iranian diplomats have 48 hours to leave the country. I say, good for the Brits!

 Not surprisingly, Iran has responded with what they do best- veiled threats.

“The British government’s asking Iranian diplomats in London to leave this country is a passive and hasty action,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in statements emailed to AFP.

“Obviously the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take reciprocal action in this regard and holds the British government responsible for protecting the diplomatic properties and belongings in London,” he added.

“What happened at the British embassy in Tehran was unpredictable. It occured due to the anger of some demonstrators over Britain’s policies regarding the Islamic republic,” Mehmanparast said.  He noted that none of the British diplomats were hurt and said the judiciary was “dealing” with the “violators.”

Right, unlike many of the pro-democracy activists who are still rotting in jail, nothing will happen to these pro-regime thugs; and since Britain is a civilized country, nothing will happen to the  personnel or the property belonging to the Iranian Embassy.

It's hard to imagine that there are still people who are pro-Ahmadinejad, pro-Mullahs. Then again, it was  the Persians themselves who ushered in those dark years of Islamism back in the late 70s when they actually voted for an Islamic Republic.

'Occupy Oakland' Injured Marine Vet Owner of IHateTheMarineCorps.com

There are always two sides to every story, and the side that best suits our needs is the one we always seem to highlight. That's what the liberal media and the leftist tools seem to have done with the Iraq war veteran who was injured during the recent Occupy Oakland melee.

Let me preface this by saying that I hope that Scott Olsen, the critically injured Marine Corps vet, pulls through and makes a rapid recovery, but there are certain elements to this story that people should be made aware of.

First of all, I do not and never will condone police brutality, but if protesters get violent and start throwing bottles (as they did in Oakland), that violence is going to escalate when police retaliate; and they will fight back.

Olsen was one of several hundred protesters who swarmed through Oakland's downtown well into the morning hours on Wednesday, repeatedly clashing with riot police. In some cases, protesters threw bottles and tipped over garbage containers. Oakland police said two of its officers were injured when a protester doused them with cans of blue and pink paint.

 If you truly peacefully protest and obey the law, you will not be harmed.

Secondly, he was not specifically targeted. He was allegedly hit by a projectile, but no-one knows where it originated from or what it was.  For all we know, it could very well have been one of his fellow "Occupiers". People are chomping at the bit for this whole movement to get violent it wouldn't be at all surprising if there weren't some agitators out there purposely trying to provoke the police into action.

As for Olsen- he wasn't the squeaky clean, above reproach war vet that he has been touted to be. According to Mercury News:

In 2010, the Marines issued Olsen an "administrative discharge." Maj. Shawn Haney, a Marines spokesman based in Quantico, Va., declined to discuss Olsen's discharge, but said his departure could have been for anything from a medical condition to a punitive measure.

Who knows what the reason was for discharge, but he had a tremendous hatred for the Marine Corps. Verum Serum blogger Morgen Richmond has unearthed some more interesting tidbits about Olsen, including the fact that he is the owner of the domain IHateTheMarineCorps.com. Although it is not up and running, he is the registered owner of the site.  And according to Verum Serum, there is evidence of drug use by Olsen. Click here for more on their story.

But, as Morgen sums it up, it's not about Olsen's less then stellar reputation, it's the troubling escalation of violence in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests  that seems to be inspired by anarchists and others hell bent on ruining this country.  I never thought we'd see violent protest in the U.S. again, after all, the Tea Party demonstrations were peaceful, but that seems to be changing with the OWS movement.  Then again, "Occupy" activists did call for violence, I guess it's now coming to fruition. No doubt, there will be more.

Anti-Semitism On The Rise

As much as anti-Semites love to proclaim they are not anti-Semitic but rather anti-Zionist, the fact that they indiscriminately target Jews and Jewish establishments all over the world proves they are both.

Since the recent battle in Gaza, anti-Semitic acts have increased across the globe, and in some cases condoned by governments themselves. Take Venezuela, which actually severed ties with Israel over Gaza (even though the fight had nothing to do with them!), it has apparently been publishing a slew of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic articles and ads in the official press. And this past Saturday a group vandalized a Caracas Synagogue, plastering "Jews get out", "We don't want Jews here" and "Death to the Jews" on the walls. The front door was broken down and scriptures and other religious relics were thrown on the floor. The guard was also threatened with a gun. Though the Chavez government has condemned the act, there are those who think that it was Chavez thugs involved.

England, in recent weeks, has also been subject to a series of hate crimes aimed at Jews. In those cases the perpetrators were identified as Asian males, which is simply a euphemism for Muslims. A Starbucks was firebombed in London's East End, because the CEO happens to be Jewish, and on that same day the driver of a Tesco (supermarket) delivery van was attacked. A Tesco Supermarket also had windows smashed and the slogan "kill Jews" painted on the walls, because the founders happen to be Jewish.

In fact, there have been a spate of hate crimes all over Europe including France, where a young girl was attacked by teens, and synagogues have been vandalized and firebombed. The same thing is happening in Sweden and elsewhere. None of these have been aimed at Zionism, but at Jews. At pro-Palestinian demonstrations throughout the world, vile epithets have been heaped upon the Jews including calls for extermination.

There is simply no difference between ant-Zionists and anti-Semites. They are one and the same.


HatTip The End Of Venezuela As I Know It
WeaselZippers

The Jena 6- or racism is alive and well in the U.S.

It's hard to believe that here we are in the 21st century, living in a progressive, supposedly civilized nation, and yet racism still runs rampant in many parts of this great country we call the United States of America. Small, provincial minds still harbour deep hatred for those who are different, finding it virtually impossible to live integrated and harmonious lives with people of different skin colours.

It's never been more obvious than in Jena, Louisiana where 6 young black teens face up to 80 years in jail for a school yard brawl that has deepened the racial divide, and was precipitated, to begin with, by racism.

Although the actual details vary, according to different sources here, here, here, and here, what we do know is that predominately white Jena High School, in Jena Louisiana, still practices (unofficially) segregation. There was a shady tree (now burned down) known as the "whites tree" because it was (unofficially) off limits to blacks. It seems that blacks and whites at Jena High School don't integrate. The whites congregated under the "whites tree" and the African American students would gather elsewhere. Sometime late August or early September, 2006 during a school assembly, one or more black students decided to challenge the status quo and asked the Principal if they too could sit under the tree. The response was that they could "sit wherever they wanted."


The next morning 3 nooses were found suspended from the tree, although it's unclear whether this happened prior to or after the black students happened to exercise what was rightfully theirs to do. The Principal of Jena High School recommended the 3 white students responsible be expelled, but Superintendent Roy Breithaupt (and the Board of Education) chose to suspend the culprits for a mere 3 days, claiming it was just a childish prank. This, of course, angered the black community and set into motion a series of events which eventually led to the beating of a white boy and the reason the Jena 6 are on trial.

It's important to follow the series of events to recognize that this case is truly an example of the racial inequality in our justice system.

First of all hanging nooses on trees is not an adolescent prank, as Breithaupt intimates, it's as much a hate crime as burning crosses on lawns or painting swastikas on Synagogues. These children need to know it is not okay to do things like that, and that they will be punished for flagrant racist actions. They should have been expelled, or at least suspended for a much longer period of time. Perhaps this would have lessened the tensions between whites and blacks that ensued after the the 3 day in-school suspension was meted out.

As far as I can cobble together from the various sources linked above this is what happened:

Fall of 2006: As tension mounts, fights erupt between black and white students at Jena High school. Unknown arsonists set fire to the campus in November, both sides blame each other. A black student, Robert Bailey, trying to enter an off-campus, all-white party is beaten up by a white male. Bailey claims he was hit on the head with a beer bottle. Justin Sloan is charged with battery and placed on probation. Several days later, at a convenience store, a young white male (who was at the party) pulls a rifle on 3 black students(including Bailey). The gun is wrestled away from the white male and Bailey takes the gun home. Their stories contradict each other but, ultimately, Bailey is the one charged with theft of a firearm, disturbing the peace and 2nd-degree robbery. The white male who pulled the gun on the black youths- gets nothing!

December 4, 2006: Again, the details are sketchy and vary, but it appears that 17-year old Justin Barker (white) is beaten by a group of black students (including Bailey) after Barker, earlier that day, allegedly taunted Bailey for having been beaten up at the party. Barker was left unconscious with some cuts, bruises and a swollen eye, but was well enough to be released from the hospital after only a few hours, and able to attend a school function later that evening.

The Six Students: Robert Bailey, Jr. (17), Mychal Bell (16), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17) and Theo Shaw (17). 14 year old Jesse Ray Beard is the only one being charged as a juvenile, the others are being charged as adults, and the D.A. upped the assault charges to attempted 2nd degree murder!

What I find appalling about this whole situation is:

1. That the kids had to even ask for permission to sit under that tree.
2. None of the white's involved in any of the altercations received punishment appropriate to the crime, and some received none at all.
3. The black teens are being charged with attempted 2nd-degree murder which is a blatant and gross miscarriage of justice.

I will be the first to dismiss the 'race-card', but in this case, no way. This is not fair, by any means.

It just demonstrates how racism still exists not just in rural Louisiana but in our justice system, as well, and when young lives hang in the balance, this is not right.

First of all, why are schools still segregated in that way? It's not like we speak 2 different languages. You might not be able to change how families pass down, from generation to generation, their biases and prejudices, but we can do something about it in our schools. I think we should insitute some kind of race relations workshops and classes in the school systems, this way we can teach our kids how to get along with others. Their futures (and ours) depend on that.

Photo Credit above: StrangeFruit- lynching of Rubin Stacy 7/19/1935 Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Click on link for story.

What is wrong with our youth, today? Florida teens gang rape woman

What makes a group of young boys, from 14 to 16, turn into a pack of barbaric animals? We witness acts of barbarism in 3rd world countries almost on a daily basis, but when it happens in our own back yard, you have to question why? We live in a supposedly civilized society, all our children are privy to an education and yet some of those kids harbour, within themselves, the capacity to inflict such incomprehensible horrors on others, without any remorse, that you have to wonder what evil possesses them to do such vile things? I don't know if you read about the following absolutely horrifying act:

On the evening of June 18th, in the Dunbar Housing project in Palm Beach County, Florida a group of about 10 masked teens knocked on a woman's door and

According to police, the assailants tricked the woman into opening her door by saying her tires were flat, then forced her back into her home. They allegedly raped her repeatedly, smashed a plate over her son's head, poured household chemicals into his eyes and forced them at gunpoint to have sex with each other. Friends say both are still in physical pain from their injuries. [snip] The woman's father said the attackers poured ammonia on his daughter, a suffocating chemical whose gases alone can burn the eyes and lungs, in an attempt to destroy DNA evidence.

Avion Lawson, 14, and Nathan Walker, 16, have been arrested, and a 3rd, Jakaris Taylor, 15, was arrested on Thursday. Taylor actually smiled when reporters asked if he had participated in the gang-rape of the 35-year-old woman. As if this was something to be proud of. All the boys will be tried as adults, rightfully so, and they are still in the process of trying to find the others involved.

Mother and son have since moved out of the projects, and have been unwilling to let family and friends know where they are.

The woman is afraid because her attackers said they would find her and set her on fire if she told police what they did, her brother said.

I find it terribly sad what is happening in our poor, predominately black and Hispanic urban areas. Blacks (and Hispanics) in those areas live in constant fear, but the challenge with trying to eliminate black on black crime etc. is the whole culture of silence that pervades those communities. Like the situation with Muslims, good people are afraid of saying or doing anything for fear of retaliation. According to neighbours, who refused to be identified for obvious reasons, the raped woman kept to herself and did not allow her son to go out because of the dangers. And yet, look what happened.


West Palm Beach Mayor, Lois Frankel, invited Dunbar Village residents to discuss what might be done to prevent crime in those areas. Frankel felt there was some progress made with suggestions that residents start taking responsibility for their children and creating mentoring programmes.

But Dunbar resident Nakisha Smokes said nothing useful was discussed. "What they need to do is what they did in a community north of here: Tear it down and start over," Smokes said.

Sure, we can blame it on parents who take little or no responsibility for their children, but what about those parents who have supposedly raised their children in a loving, nurturing environment? Youth violence and crime has no color, class or creed. A rich, white kid is just as liable to rape and/or kill someone as a poor Black or Hispanic kid. Witness the Colombine Massacre and all the others that followed, the kids who kill their parents (usually white males), the date rapists. We're raising a generation of conscience-less kids, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason. Or is there?


According to Lt Col. Dave Grossman, a retired Army Ranger, West Point psychology professor, and an expert on the psychology of killing, there is a definite reason for all the violence. He has some very interesting articles on his website killology.com

In his article "Teaching Kids to Kill" A Virus of Violence he explains, in detail, how TV, Movie and Video Game violence is contributing to the increased violence in society today.

Something very similar is happening to our children through violence in the media. It begins at the age of 18 months, when a child can begin to understand and mimic what is on television. But up until they're six or seven years old they are developmentally, psychologically, physically unable to discern the difference between fantasy and reality. Thus, when a young child sees somebody on TV being shot, stabbed, raped, brutalized, degraded, or murdered, to them it is real, and some of them embrace violence and accept it as a normal and essential survival skill in a brutal new world. [snip]

Today the data linking violence in the media to violence in society is superior to that linking cancer and tobacco. The American Psychological Association (APA), the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Surgeon General, and the Attorney General have all made definitive statements about this. When I presented a paper to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) annual convention in May, 2000 (Grossman, 2000), the statement was made that: “The data is irrefutable. We have reached the point where we need to treat those who try to deny it, like we would treat Holocaust deniers.” Kids watch vivid images of human death and suffering and they learn to associate it with: laughter, cheers, popcorn, soda, and their girlfriend's perfume (Grossman & DeGaetano, 1999)."

After the Jonesboro shootings, one of the high school teachers told me about her students' reaction when she told them that someone had shot a bunch of their little brothers, sisters, and cousins in the middle school. "They laughed," she told me with dismay, "they laughed." We have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate human death and suffering with pleasure (Grossman & DeGaetano, 1999).

Simply put, we need to work toward “legislation” which outlaws violent video games for children. In July, 2000, the city of Indianapolis passed just such an ordinance, and every other city, country or state in America has the right to do the same. There is no Constitutional “right” to teach children to blow people’s heads off at the local video arcade. And we are very close to being able to do to the media, through “litigation,” what is being done to the tobacco industry, hotting them in the only place they understand--their wallets. Most of all, the American people need to be informed. Every parent must be warned of the impact of violent visual media on children, as we would warn them of some rampant carcinogen. Violence is not a game, it is not fun, it is not something that we let children do for entertainment. Violence kills."

Another potential catalyst for violence in our children is the amount of drugs we are pumping into them: from Ritalin to Xanax.

"Psychotic episodes and violent behavior are associated with chronic Ritalin abuse. Ritalin is the amphetamine-like drug widely prescribed to children for the contrived mental disease, "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" (ADHD). Even Ritalin's manufacturer warns that "frank psychotic episodes can occur" with abusive use. And even the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists the major complication of Ritalin withdrawal is suicide.

Psychiatric drugs can cause violence; they can kill. These are facts that psychiatrists and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) are not comfortable with. Psychiatrists for obvious reasons-- they could and should be held liable for a crime committed by their drugged out patients -- and NAMI because it "is awash in money from drug companies" -- $3.2 million per year from nine such companies -- that manufacture these often crippling drugs."

I think parents need to take a closer look at what is influencing their children. It's as important to be cognizant of what you are feeding their minds as what you are feeding their stomachs. There are many holistic alternatives to the drugs we give our children that are safe and efficacious. It just takes work and research, but it's obviously worth the effort. We are over- drugging, overfeeding, overstimulating our kids and it's going to take its toll, at some point. Our children are our future. Make sure they are raised well.