‘It’s not a game. You can seriously injure, possibly even kill, someone’
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is not waiting around for the New York Times to figure out if the Knockout Game is an urban legend. Not anymore.
That did not work out too well last time.
“Three years ago Philadelphia was on the cusp of a two-year bout with dozens of episodes of what the press was calling flash mobs of unruly teens, but what lots of other people recognized as black mob violence,” said Taleeb Starkes, author of the “Uncivil War: Confronting the Subculture Within the African-American Community.” “It was an exact repeat of what happened this week when Nutter promised he was not going to tolerate the Knockout Game. The mayor had assembled a full cast of characters including the district attorney and the police chief to promise they were not going to put up with this flash mob nonsense.”
Back then, the mayor declared that an outbreak of racial violence was “nothing much” and really the fault of bad reporting. Nutter told The New York Times the violence had “no racial component.” The Times was one of the only outlets to even consider the question. Even if only to dismiss it.
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