Lucky Tiger Vs the King Hit

I have had trouble understanding the term ‘King-hit’. I know what it means, that some jerk has punched you in the back of the head and knocked you to the ground. It’s just the name is hard to get around, similar to the so called ‘honour killings’.

Violently murdering or otherwise abusing a female family member for living her life, being raped, not wanting to marry the jerk you’re trying to force her to marry or even saying ‘hi’ to a male grocery store clerk is definitely an honour killing. Only, it’s not bringing you ‘back’ any honour, you’re just squeezing the life out of any honour your family may have held at one stage.

So in a way, it’s like a twisted play on words. With ‘king hit’ I’ve always found it distasteful to even consider punching someone in a fairly cowardly way ‘king like’. This morning in the shower, I had a ponder and now I think that this is another wicked word play.

After all, most kings are jerks, right? All with the being rich while the nation starves, chopping and changing of wives, dungeons, creating your own religion because you can, etc etc. It would be just like one of those douchebag kings to have their many lackeys hold someone back so Mr Royalty could ‘win’ the fight.

In the Australian headlines today, an arrest has been made in the king hit murder of Thomas Kelly, an 18 year old accounting student. Kieran Loveridge, also 18 is accused of going on a violent rampage through the infamous Kings Cross party strip at about ten o’clock on July 7th.
 (Oh hey, there’s another kingly reference!)
They say he hit two other people as well as king hitting Kelly as he was walking along talking to his girlfriend on the phone.

Kelly’s parents were in the sad position to pull the plug on their son two days later. Loveridge was denied bail but will be applying for it next week. Sources say he was visibly upset in the court room.
Also arrested was a 17 year old boy outside the court room. Rumours say he is a supporter of Loveridge, but the way he charged a news crew, knocking one man to the ground -  isn’t helping anyone’s case.

The boy is scheduled to appear at the Parramatta Children’s court and the man he knocked to the ground was taken from the scene in an ambulance.

I’m sure all of us are wondering what happened, really. Was it a bad night? Was the accused on something? Is this his first legal scrape? Was Kelly just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
I’m not looking to make excuses, but I have to say that it is refreshing to hear that the defendant has emotions left, unlike the next story I’m going to rant about.

This case has sparked calls for early morning lock downs and shorter operational hours for pubs and clubs around the area and I hope something to that effect goes through. It’s not fair to the hospitality workers and the patrons who haven’t done anything wrong ,  but until we can get a handle on pub violence, glassing and king hitting it could be our only option.

Now the next story is from America, Chicago to be precise.
In a gang related ‘game’ of ‘Pick ‘em out, knock ‘em down’ a 62 year old father of 12 has been killed. Formerly from Mexico, Delfino Mora worked hard to support his family and after a construction accident crippled one of his arms, he still did his best.
Unfortunately, foraging for aluminium cans for collection at 5am last Tuesday would be his last attempt to bring in more funds.

Malik Jones, 16, said to his friends “I’m going to knock out this (expletive deleted).” He switched on the video mode for his cell phone and passed it to Nicholas Ayala, 17. Somewhere along the line Anthony Malcolm, 18, ended up filming.
The youths surrounded Mora, asking if he had any money. Mora, minding his own business, didn’t answer them so they asked again, this time with Jones landing a blow on Mora’s jaw.

The back of Mora’s head hit the concrete with a noise that was audible on the mobile phone’s recorder. Later, Jones returned to Mora and stole US$60 from the man’s wallet. All three walked away laughing.

Mora wasn’t found until three hours later by a passerby, blood streaming from his nose and vomit nearby. He died soon after on Wednesday in Intensive Care.
Meanwhile, Jone’s Facebook page had a new video uploaded. It spread, and before long found a survivor of Jone’s violence, someone who knew Mora’s son.  Arrests were made soon after, with Jones still carrying the phone on his person.

All three were charged as adults for first degree murder, with no bail. I’m pleased to hear that. Not all of them are technically adults but if they’re able to commit crimes like this then they should be charged accordingly.

Malcolm’s family says that he’s a good kid and has never been in trouble before. A family friend also added that Malcolm never touched Mora, he just held the camera and laughed.
Wow, family friend, that statement isn’t exactly a vote of confidence!

Even without physically touching Mora, he should still be held accountable. He could have been at home at that stupid hour. He wasn’t. He could have said ‘no, let’s not do this.’ He didn’t. He could have used the phone to call emergency services. He didn’t. He could have refused to film the crime. He didn’t. He knowingly left a man bleeding on the ground without giving any aid. Just because he didn’t touch the victim, doesn’t mean he was innocent in this unprovoked attack.

A link was posted to what is supposed to be Malcolm’s Facebook page. Although not all is visible, it is apparently full of terrible spelling and grammar, weed paraphernalia and pictures of car crashes outside his home (or chkrib, if you will) laughing at ‘stupid bitches’ and ‘dumb cops’.
Sounds like a nice kid.

 Jones has admitted to punching the victim. In a statement, his father says that he has had troubles from Juvenile Hall and ever since joining the gang. He also says that his son was only trying to knock him out and not trying to kill him.
Again, not super helpful.

I could punch you right now. I don’t know what would happen. Maybe I’d miss. Maybe I’d bruise you, or knock a tooth out. Maybe I’d get you so bad you’d fall over, maybe knock your head on the coffee table. Oops. My bad. I didn’t mean to!

But we’re not in my house. We’re in the alley at 5 in the morning. You’re about four decades older than me, with the use of one arm. I don’t know you. I’m going to punch you anyway, because I’ve just seen you by pure chance and I feel like playing a game.  It doesn’t matter if you want to join in or not.

If that’s what I’m doing, it’s not unreasonable to assume that someone will get hurt. After all, there’s no motive to start this, and it’s just random violence. If he was just going to try knocking him out, did he ask permission? Was there a mattress or pillows nearby to soften the fall, or was he going to catch him in his arms?

How many times have we seen  ‘one punch kills’ stories? Common sense isn’t common, I know but this is ridiculous to claim they didn’t know what would have happened.

So not only is their father dead, but there’s a ghastly video floating around that his family will be having nightmares over. One family member suggested that they were just doing it for entertainment, posting the video in an attempt to get famous/infamous. They’re probably right.

I read an excellent comment on one of these news stories.. that instead of just sitting in jail for years costing the tax payers, any defendant found guilty of the crime should be put to work, with all income going to the victim’s family. Someone else suggested that it’s too close to slavery, but I think that if it was enforced properly it could work.

Let’s face it, some people have it too easy in prison. I was reading a news article about some bloke in Britain who asked for jail instead of a fine or community service or whatever it was because being in there was ten times better and comfortable for his admittedly lazy ass than it is at his home.
The work-for-penance idea is kinda a triple whammy. If the accused is in fact remorseful, working for the victim’s family could be therapeutic. It also takes care of the bereaved family, especially in the short term with medical bills, funerals, loss of income due to spouse’s demise etc. Then of course, the prisoners in this system are doing something productive, not just staring at four walls and a telly for fifteen years. It’d also help ease pressure on the overcrowded prison system, surely!

 I’ve seen some shockingly short sentences lately, mostly for rape/sexual assault cases with either says that the courts don’t find these acts as criminal as say, oh, fraud/hacking.

Really sick of gang stories though. I really have no idea why these idiots think they’re hardcore. Especially when the basis of these groups is peer pressure. If you have to kill someone/spray something/steal something to make someone else happy or have them consider you as a new buddy.. you’ve got some freakin’ issues.