The Punishing Sound of Silence

When I heard about Knockout last week I thought it was a joke. But it’s terribly, despicably, ridiculously real. Knockout is a “game” where young thugs sucker punch strangers with the goal of knocking them out cold. To add insult to literal injury, the video of the crime is then often posted online by the perpetrators themselves. The human heart is desperately sick. Who can know it? (Jer. 17:9).

Predictably, there is much conversation about the “cause” of this behavior. Is it video games? It is parenting? Is it a culture of violence? Is it a pervasive hopelessness in our urban centers? I’ll let the experts discuss.

But one thing that certainly doesn’t help is mentioning the attackers famous for their crime.  I don’t expect news outlets to refrain from covering murders and shootings and knockouts. The news industry has always trafficked disproportionately in bad news. Tragedy sells; normal happiness doesn’t. But do we have to keep naming names? Why make the worst people in this country the most well known?

I’ve thought this for a long time especially as it relates to mass shootings that (almost always) end in suicide. I’m not surprised that a deranged and evil person ready to end his life would want to make a big splash doing it. Why not get some revenge? Why not be the star in your own reality television show? Big time headlines, no earthly consequences.

I suppose it’s impossible, on this side of the social media revolution, to completely quarantine information. But I bet we could do more than we think. Do you remember the last time you saw a streaker flash his nasty business across the field at a sporting event? I don’t, because the broadcasts don’t show them anymore. They look the other way. They don’t dignify the wacko with 3.5 seconds of fame. Who knows, maybe crazies jump on the field all the time and we just don’t see it anymore. But I doubt it. Some smart person realized at some point that if a streaker streaks in the woods and no one is there to see it, the streaking is a lot less fun.

Couldn’t we try the same thing with knockouts and other random acts of violence? I say that these kids walloping people for fun get three things: jail time, zero notoriety, and a lifetime ban from social media. The deterrent effect might still be small. But what could be worse for today’s young person than complete and utter invisibility? If an earlier era of scarlet letters punished their criminals with public shame, we should punish our malefactors with public oblivion. No names. No fame. No new “likes” and “followers.” Just the punishing sound of silence.