Knockout Game

"I was hit with one punch that knocked me to the cold concrete..." - Pennsylvania schoolteacher Jim Addlespurger

ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com

(CLEVELAND) - The "knockout game" is a dangerous trend popular among teens that holds dire consequences for innocent people that are targeted.

It involves knocking people out for the fun of it when they do not expect to be attacked. Women and children have been victims to this "prank" according to media reports.

A similar practice inside of jails and prisons is called being "torpedoed" and it is often fatal.

Today.com reports:

Pennsylvania schoolteacher Jim Addlespurger was walking home, minding his own business, when a group of teenagers knocked him out in broad daylight with no warning at all. He dropped face-down to the curb.

"I was hit with one punch that knocked me to the cold concrete," said Addlespurger, who has since recovered from the attack, which was caught on video. "It's a horrific thing to see, and I'm fortunate that I'm alive here to tell you about it."

The practice according to today.com, has turned fatal:

“Knockout Game”

A random unsuspecting person becomes the target of a sucker punch, Is it really, Black Teens roaming the streets like, “The Wild Bunch?” As their selfish, gangster desires trump the rights of the world today, When knocking unconscious not foes of equal strength but easy prey. Furthermore, the victims are White whereas the aggressors are Black, Every incident shows all the victims are alone in unprovoked attacks, A wildly watched video shows James Addlespurger, 50, of Pittsburg, Warning! The video including other like attacks are racially disturbed. Fact! Young Black men murder 14 more times than young Whites do, Statistics, 14 more times young Whites will graduate from high school, Question: Is there a correlation to these stats since numbers do not lie? With that being the case why hasn’t someone found the reason(s) why? There’s a story & video of devastating attacks on The O’Reilly Factor, Participants are real, falls are not fake, it’s not presented by actors, 1st African American President some Young Blacks show Zero respect, By their actions regarding Obama okay so on which end is the neglect? Trayvon Martin, Black Entertainers want to boycott Florida to this day, Whether these incidents are increasing or not, not one word do they say, President & 1st Lady, quick to be vocal championing the rights of Gays, How long will the Obama’s & Black Artists keep looking the other way? There’s been a recent onslaught of media attention, rightly there should, Sure, innocent people get beaten in Iraqi & Afghanistan neighborhoods, The idea behind quenching is to throw water not pour gasoline on a fire, Each year racial tension in this country keeps getting higher and higher. “Spreading like wildfire” maybe yes & maybe no but once is one to many, In America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, there must not be any, And yet there are violent videos proving this insane violence does exists, Viral story perpetrated by bands of cowards? This is not an urban myth. By Luke Easter

We live in a world of social & economic injustice. The main reason for founding America in the first place was to relieve the oppression of the King of England. Patrick Henry said it best, “give me liberty or give me death.” And yet, all too often death seems to be the only way out. Why is there such a high suicide rate especially among teens, in the land of the free & the home of the brave? What makes headlines? Good news? Ha! More depressing stories than anything else. I feel poetry takes an edge off the hurt of bad news while still delivering it but in a, “glitzy” sort of way. Giving a different perspective. Kind of like slap in the face as opposed to a knife in the back. At least with the slap you’ll live to see another day and you will know whom it’s from. I wasn’t here for the beginning of the world but at 59, I just might be here for the end.

Even though it’s still a knife, rhyme poetry helps to dull the blade. And that’s my job. You can write to Luke Easter at: lyricsfromlucas@aol.com