Hackensack and Paterson assaults are not part of ‘knockout game,’ police say
August 21, 2014
by Abbott Koloff
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD AND PATERSON PRESS
After a man in his 60s was beaten by a group of teenagers in Paterson on Wednesday night, a city councilman said it looked like an example of a supposedly trending national game called “knockout.” Fears that the game, blamed for at least one death in New Jersey, had taken root locally were fanned earlier in the week when a lone assailant randomly punched three people in separate incidents in Hackensack. …
… At the same time as the Hoboken assault, a flood of national stories appeared about the knockout game, according to Jeffrey A. Butts, a head researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Butts said the stories indicated a heightened interest by the media but not necessarily a rise in the number of incidents, which he said are rare.
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