[Jane Velez-mitchell:] Tonight we are learning about the newest victims in a vicious, and I mean, vicious game teenage perpetrators are playing called the knockout game. And tonight we have just learned a 78-year-old woman was targeted by a teenager who knocked her down as hard as he could in a sick sport that is becoming the rage around the country. Rage being the operative word. And it`s even spreading to the whole world.
[Unidentified Female:] The so-called knockout game, a game that`s proven deadly in the past.
[Unidentified Male:] You assault them to the degree that somebody loses consciousness, it`s serious business.
[Unidentified Female:] Teens striking unsuspecting strangers, essentially violence for the sake of violence.
[Unidentified Male:] The video speaks for itself, but I don`t remember it happening when it happened.
[Unidentified Female:] Videos of attacks posted online.
[Unidentified Male:] Oh Kids, I think, don`t understand the significance of what they think is a game, really sometimes has permanent consequences.
[Jane Velez-mitchell:] Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you live. Thanks so much for joining me. How sick is this? How sick is this? It`s happened in as many as six different states and even overseas, across the pond, as it were. A 16-year-old girl, you`re looking at it now. Sixteen-year-old girl, boom, knocked out in London last year. You can see, he`s not trying to rob her. He just turns the other way and runs. Out of nowhere, why? It`s a game. I`m happy to say that that young lady recovered, but others have been killed by this knockout game. The teens often target the elderly what an act of cowardice including a 78-year-old great grandmother. Listen to this.
[Unidentified Female:] When he passed her, he turned around and punched her in the head. He did not take anything from her. She was stunned. She`s terrified. She takes care of her great-grandchildren all day. And she walks with them in the carriages. She now will not leave the front of her building.
[Velez-mitchell:] As many as eight people have been attacked in this woman`s neighborhood alone. The cops are put on alert. Extra officers are going into areas where these random knockout attacks have happened, but they`re happening everywhere. Are we going to live in an armed camp? We`re now learning victims are fighting back. So watch out, teen perps. Cops say this teenager tried to play the knockout game but got caught after the guy he was targeting, he tried to knock over, pulled out a gun and shot him twice. What should be done with these teenagers? Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS. Why do you think it`s happening? I want to know from you: 1-877-586-7297. We have a fantastic Lion`s Den debate panel tonight. We begin with contributing editor to "Marie Clair" magazine, Siggy Flicker. Siggy, is the world going mad, that teenagers think that sadistically assaulting a total stranger, especially an elderly woman, is fun and a sport?
[Siggy Flicker, Contributing Editor, "marie Clair":] I just want to scream when you say that. It`s absolutely absurd. It`s disgusting. Where are the parents in this? What are people thinking? What are people thinking when you think of a game? To knock out and if you watch that video, that one man blasted that woman so hard in the face that she was knocked out before she hit the concrete. Imagine what the concrete did to her. That poor thing. It`s disgusting on every level, and I`m outraged.
[Velez-mitchell:] I am outraged, as well, but I`m also baffled. And right now, we`re going to try to figure out why this is happening. The knock-out game is going viral. That means it is catching on. So cops say it`s evolving I say devolving into something more vicious and sinister. Now they`re knocking out total strangers using Taser guns. I`m not joking. Cops say 17-year-old Marvell Weaver tried to Tase a man who was waiting for his daughter at a bus stop by using a stun gun to try to knock him out, but the Taser, which was reportedly capable of generating almost two volts, wouldn`t fire. Instead the intended victim pulled out his registered legal handgun and shot the teenager twice. This teen you`re looking at, he survived. He was sentenced to a year in jail for illegal possession of a stun gun. Back to the Lion`s Den. Lisa Bloom, legal analyst with Avvo.com, it`s a new level of sickness, that kids would want to escalate the suffering of complete strangers by zapping them with a stun gun, an act that is torturous.
[Lisa Bloom, Legal Analyst, Avvo.com:] Yes. It`s an act of domestic terrorism, really, if you`re going to walk up and just assault somebody like that and scare everybody else in the community that they could be next. And as you point out, for what? I mean, it`s a sad day in America when we`re holding up robbers as paragons of values and virtue. Well, at least robbers we can understand, because they hit somebody and they take their money. We can understand that. They`re terrible, too. But this is really a whole new level. Violence just for violence`s sake. I think parents and teachers have to teach values and empathy. That`s what`s clearly missing in these teenagers` lives.
[Velez-mitchell:] Well, it`s beyond disturbing. It really is profoundly disturbing. Anybody with any sense of decency is going to be repulsed by this trend. Here is just one reaction.
[Unidentified Female:] Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[Unidentified Male:] Whoa! Man, it`s you know? They`ve got a fine look at that. That`s terrible. That`s somebody`s mother, somebody`s father.
[Unidentified Female:] Whether it`s random or targeted, it`s sick.
[Velez-mitchell:] That brings me to my rant. We are turning into a culture of sadism. So many kids are not being raised with any sense of morality. They`re not taught right from wrong. They`re not molded to listen to their hearts. The classic character Jiminy Cricket once said, "Let your conscious be your guide." Kids aren`t listening to Jiminy Cricket any more. They`re way too sophisticated. Instead, the knockout game reminds me of the classic novel "The Lord of the Flies," where kids are let loose on an island, and a sadistic and evil game ensues where the weakest boys are humiliated and tortured. It is "Lord of the Flies" out there, people. And I want to toss it out to Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist. Why have these kids lost or perhaps never even had in the first place their moral compass?
[Ramani Durvasula, Clinical Psychologist:] Well, Jane, it`s funny you say, "Let your conscience be your guide." Well, they don`t have a conscience. And you know where we get a conscience from? Parents. And too many parents are phoning it in these days. And ultimately, these kids also know there`s not a lot of consequences to their actions. They`re so taken with the idea of being part of a new viral trend that they don`t even think about what`s going to happen. And I actually think we`re a little bit easy on adolescents in our legal system. So the fact is, they probably think, "I`m going to get away with this."
[Velez-mitchell:] J. Wyndal Gordon, attorney out of D.C., when these kids are found, because some of them you can see this blurry surveillance video they haven`t been caught yet, but when they are found, they are in serious, serious legal trouble.
[J. Wyndal Gordon, Attorney:] Yes. They will face felony assault charges, depending on the degree of injury to the persons who they assaulted. In addition to that, you know, just looking at these videos, I heard about this last week, and I didn`t even want to look at the video. And now that I`ve seen it, it sickens me. I`m very disturbed. And I hope that this does not this trend does not find fester throughout the entire country and world. But this is very disturbing.
[Velez-mitchell:] We want to stamp it out right now, tonight. First of all, we`re letting people know there`s a problem. Here`s the problem. And that`s the first step to a solution, is to admit that there`s a problem. There`s a problem, America, that kids think this is fun. Straight out to the phone lines. Carol, Indiana, what do you got to say? Carol, Indiana.
[Caller:] Hey, Jane. How you doing? Love the show.
[Velez-mitchell:] Thank you.
[Caller:] You already know this.
[Velez-mitchell:] Thank you.
[Caller:] Hey, Jane, I`ve got two comments to make. No. 1, I hope they don`t start this in Indiana. Because it`s going to be a whole lot of teenagers right on the streets. It starts me being one of the culprits. You know, whereas, I would have left my gun in the car. It`s going to be in my coat pocket. That`s the way I`m feeling. Because they`ve better knock me straight out, because I`m going to follow up with a couple of bullets in their butt and let their parents deal with it.
[Velez-mitchell:] Carol, Carol Carol, I want to step in for one second. You`ve made a very strong comment. And, see, this is the cycle of violence. And this is how violence escalates. And I do believe that we have an addiction to violence in this country and that we have to look in a mirror. We have to look in the mirror. Do you go to violent movies? Do you watch violent TV shows? Are we into sadistic story lines? Because this is not coming out of nowhere, Siggy Flicker. I know you`re a mom, and Lisa is, too. We`ll start with Siggy.
[Flicker:] OK. You`re absolutely right. I love everything you`re saying. It starts with what`s happening inside the house. Parents got to step up. It starts with Xbox, for example. Let me just give you a small example. If your child is spending too much time playing Call of Duty, he shouldn`t be playing or she shouldn`t be playing Call of Duty. Take out the Xbox. Know what your child is doing. Limit these violent games. At home, too. Find out who they`re they`re hanging out with. Take an action. Be part of your child`s life and don`t be afraid to put your foot down and say enough is enough. Enough is enough.
[Velez-mitchell:] Let me say this. We know that three people three innocent people have already been killed by this hideous game. It`s gone from assault to murder. Forty-six-year-old Ralph Santiago killed in Hoboken, New Jersey, after he was hit. He was found with a broken neck and his head stuck between two iron fence spikes. Three of the alleged attackers were arrested after being caught on surveillance video. This is what scares me almost to death. They were just 13 and 14 years old. You know, there`s a long list here. But Lisa Bloom, a couple of things. One, with that group thing, we know that teenagers like to travel in packs. And when they travel in packs, they become exponentially more brazen, having to prove to each other their manliness. So that is No. 1. I don`t think you`re seeing a lot of girls involved in this. This is something about what we`re teaching boys about what it means to be a man. And unfortunately, our culture is saying if you`re violent, you`re a man; you`re a real man.
[Bloom:] Right.
[Velez-mitchell:] And that`s the worst message.
[Bloom:] Right. Too much machismo, too much violence. I write about that in my book about our parenting boys, which is called "Swagger." Teenagers should not be roaming around in groups at night, by the way. Teenagers should be busy. That`s probably the most important thing I can tell parents of teenagers. A lot of people say the kids have over- structured lives, and some of them do. But for the most part, teenagers should be busy. They should be at school. They should be at home. They should be doing homework. They should be doing chores. They shouldn`t have time to roam around and get into trouble like this, because if it`s not this, it`s going to be something else. Let`s keep them busy until they`re at least 18 and out of school.
[Velez-mitchell:] You are absolutely right. I talked to somebody about the gang problem once, and he said that teenagers are essentially pack animals. They want to be in packs. If you give them a good pack, that`s like a team, being part of a band, that`s great. If you don`t give them that, they`ll join a bad pack, which is a gang or this kind of activity. I think boys need to be exposed to art. They need to paint. They need to dance. They need to do all these things that somehow our culture is sending a message that, oh, that`s that`s not what boys should be doing. Nonsense. You want to be as famous as some of these guys who appear my gosh. Who was sexiest man alive? Adam Levine. OK? Look at any number of these great performers. You think they didn`t take dance classes? You think they don`t know how to be an artist? The list escapes me but just any awards show. This is what boys shouldn`t do. This is what boys need to learn is not being a man. George Zimmerman, soon to be his ex-wife is calling him a ticking time bomb. A jaw-dropping interview that she conducted with Katie, and you`re going to hear what Shellie Zimmerman has to say and like a whole string of explosive drama-rama surrounding George Zimmerman. And now Shellie is saying this reflects on the death of an innocent, unarmed teen. We all know his name, Trayvon Martin.
[Shellie Zimmerman, Estranged Wife Of George Zimmerman:] I`ve been married to a person for almost seven years, and I don`t think I ever really knew him at all. In my opinion he feels more invincible. He`s making some reckless decisions, and I think George is all about George.