Attacks on Jews show a troubling increase

Although overall anti-Semitic incidents declined 19% nationwide from 2012 to 2013, there were 31 assaults on Jews last year compared to 17 in 2012.

By Alana Semuels
April 2, 2014

NEW YORK —  … Legislators in a number of states, including New York and New Jersey, quickly introduced bills trying to stem the game, hoping to try juveniles who participated in it as adults. So far, few of those bills have gained momentum.

But Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, cautioned that it might be a stretch to link the knockout game with a rise in anti-Semitic assaults. First, he said, there is no proof that the incidents were linked, or even that any kind of formal game existed, and second, the main motivation of the game was not hatred for a particular group, but “social distance.”

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