by Ray Blumhorst
President, NCFM Los Angeles Chapter
In his 12/24/2011 article, AP reporter Jim Salter writes, “Unprovoked attacks at heart of ‘Knockout King’”
According to the article, Knockout King is a new crime trend, where an attacker who is part of a group just begins punching a victim.
“The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group – usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases – chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a victim,” said Satler. Elsewhere in the article, “It’s adolescent and early adults, largely male, showing how tough they are. It’s done to show off,” said Scott Decker, Arizona State criminologist.
After clearly identifying the predominant gender of the perpetrators of this crime, Satler goes on to allege that the victims are “chosen at random,” but is that really the case? Apparently not. All four examples of “beating victims” given in Satler’s article are clearly male, and according to past federal crime reports, approximately seventy eight percent of homicides are male: http://tinyurl.com/77o2yq5 . Why is it so important for this AP reporter to point out the predominate gender of the perpetrators as male, while failing to point out the predominate gender of the victims as male?
In a lecture given by Jackson Katz several years back to UCLA women’s studies students, and others (paraphrasing), “It’s a sign of male privilege that women are afraid to walk alone at night, while men aren’t.” Given that seventy eight percent of homicides are male, according to federal crime reporting. Is it a responsible thing to be telling males that their lack of fear, while walking alone at night, is a “male privilege??” If men aren’t afraid to walk alone at night, they should be, and reporting like Sattler’s (neglecting to accurately/honestly cite male victimhood), and statements like Katz’s, (implying males are privileged, because they have no fear to walk alone at night), appear badly misinformed at the least.
Has a “politically correct” innuendo that males as a group don’t matter (unless casting them only as violent perpetrators, or privileged Patriarchs) become an acceptable bias that’s enshrined in educational facilities, journalistic publications, and beyond? Such stereotyping of males as a group is neither honest, nor acceptable, in an American society that purports to extend equal protection to “all” as the benchmark of justice.
Hate crime laws extend special protection to groups of people based on characteristics like gender. State hate crime laws vary, but current statutes permit federal prosecution of hate crimes committed on the basis of a person’s protected characteristics – including their gender. Given a pattern that shows males as the overwhelming targets of “Knockout King” violence, these offenses should be honestly reported as overwhelmingly targeting men, and they should be prosecuted, as hate crimes committed against men.
Katz references supporting paraphrase used above:
http://tinyurl.com/85r6x8z
http://tinyurl.com/75rqyfn
Other Katz references:
http://www.jacksonkatz.com/news.html
SEE http://ncfm.org/2011/05/issues/anti-male-media-bias for more about bias against men in the media
