The "knockout game" that outraged the Syracuse area earlier this year when two teenagers playing it attacked and killed Michael Daniels on West Brighton Avenue is getting renewed attention as reports spread about Jews being targeted in Brooklyn and the death of a homeless man in Hoboken, N.J.

The New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Unit is investigating reports that a group of men is playing "Knock Out the Jew" in Brooklyn. A 64-year-old man told CBS New York in a report posted Tuesday that he and his 12-year-old son were attacked. Video in the report also shows a 19-year-old Jewish man being sucker punched.

Nothing was taken in the assaults.

Teacher James D. Addlespurger, right, falls to the ground, the victim of a purported knockout game attack broadcast by CBS New York.

The report came a day after the eBaum's World website posted an earlier CBS New York video describing how the knockout game was being played in New Jersey:



That CBS New York report is undated but apparently was produced after three Jersey City teens were charged with murder in September following the death of Ralph Erick Santiago in Hoboken, allegedly as the result of the knockout game.

The report includes clips of the game being played. One victim is shown being knocked out with one punch, an act called a "one-hitter quitter," the reporter is told.

What's the point, the reporter asks one young male. "For the fun of it, like, for little kids to run around and hit people. Even though they shouldn't be doing it, people do it," he replies.

Here's the video itself:

The video was going viral, New Jersey radio station 94.3 The Point said Wednesday as it reposted the CBS story. Said reporter Laurie Cataldo:

It's not about robbing the victim, it's not retaliation for anything, it's seemingly because these morons have nothing better to do. Let's keep it real though, this is not a "game." This is assault, plain and simple. It's a crime, not a game.



"If This Game Is Any Indication of the Future of America, You May Want to Start Packing Your Bags," read the headline on the Independent Journal Review which also ran the video Wednesday.

The reports revive memories of the knockout game attack on Michael Daniels on May 23 as he stood at West Brighton Avenue and Cannon Street. Police said a 13-year-old boy tried to knock out Daniels with one punch. When he failed, a 15-year-old boy punched the victim with enough force to damage his brain. Daniels died the next day.

The boys were charged May 30 with first-degree manslaughter.The younger boy pleaded guilty to assault and attempted assault and was sentenced in September to 18 months of confinement. The older boy was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter in August and was sentenced to be confined for 18 months. Onondaga County Family Court handled both cases.

Shortly after the Daniels case wound down, 70-year-old Syracuse resident Jim Gifford was beaten without provocation Sept. 21 at the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store in Elmwood. Asked whether the attack was an instance of the knockout game, Police Chief Frank Fowler said it was "not a game in any way, sense or form."

Romeo Williams, 18, of Solvay, was initially charged with assault. Gifford, 70, died from his injuries and Williams now faces first- and second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault charges.

What's your reaction to the Brooklyn case and the report on the knockout game? Please leave a comment below.