For some time now there have been news stories here and there about something called "the knockout game." Some academics have debunked those stories and the entire idea. True or not I don't know, but the news stories keep showing up. Either way, maintaining situational awareness is as always a first level of defense.
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http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_cdf5032a-b65e-51e0-a84e-de0f0ce0c5f8.html
'Knockout game' case shocked St. Louis, then fell apart
Matt Quain poses for a portrait at his home on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, a few days after he was attacked, apparently part of the "knockout game." Photo by Johnny Andrews,
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March 04, 2012 10:15 am • BY TODD C. FRANKEL
ST. LOUIS • The police captain couldn't believe it. He had the Knockout King in his office.
It was September 2011, and police were struggling to get a handle on a series of vicious knockout assaults in south St. Louis. Groups of teens were cold-cocking older pedestrians at random. One was dead, several injured. Residents were alarmed, police baffled. It didn't make sense, such a cruel and cowardly crime.
Now, sitting in Capt. Jerry Leyshock's office was an important key to the mystery: the Knockout King. That was the teen's nickname, said the four other young men also swept up that night by police after yet another assault. They sat inside South Patrol headquarters. And the ringleader, they said, happened to be right over there.
Leyshock took stock of the young man in his office. The kid looked 17 or 18. He was stocky, his hair cut in short dreadlocks. He wore a hooded sweatshirt. The captain, who coached youth boxing, thought he recognized the teen as a boxer from the Cherokee Recreation Center. The teen, for now, revealed little. Then he mentioned he was 16, a juvenile. Too young to talk with police alone. The interview was over.
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