New England is in the path of a major snowstorm that will begin Thursday and continue into the weekend.
Two storm cells are merging in the mid-Atlantic region and moving up the Eastern seaboard. Blizzard like conditions are likely from New York through Boston and into Maine.
Officials say it won’t be one of the worst storms to hit the area but the frigid temperatures combined with the snow will make traveling through the area very hazardous. Residents are being warned that long-term power outages are a possibility from the heavy snow and high winds.
The storm is also expected to cause major headaches for travelers who are returning from Christmas and New Years vacations.
Transportation officials are warning that layers of ice are likely to form on highways after nightfall and are advising people to stay in through Friday if possible.
The latest arrests for Knockout Game attacks have surprising results.
A 14-year-old girl and three other children aged 10 and 11 were arrested for a series of assaults in October and November.
The victims include a youth the gang hit in the head with a rock and another who had a plastic bag held over their face to suffocate them.
“Kids are kids — when you’re talking 10 and 11 year olds getting involved in these type of things, sometimes they don’t realize the magnitude of what they’re doing,” NYPD Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon told reporters.
The police say that the attacks, despite only striking Jewish children, were not motivated by hate.
The youths were charged with assault, endangerment and criminal mischief.
A 20-year-old Long Island man is behind bars after police say he committed at least seven “knockout game” attacks dating back to April 2013.
Darryl Mitchell is expected to be charged today with the assaults of residents from Babylon, New York to Amityville, New York.
One of the victims, Darryl Jones, said that Mitchell came at him out of nowhere and landed a single roundhouse punch to the face. The blow caused a gash above his eye that required seven stitches.
“If I wasn’t strong enough, I probably would’ve passed out,” told WABC. “He was walking on the sidewalk and I moved out of the way just to step into the street and he stood in front of me holding up his hands and hit me in the face.”
The victims ranged in age from 17 to 69.
Civil rights leaders and music stars are joining together to try and put an end to the knockout game in New York.
Reverend Al Sharpton, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and others have joined together for a series of social media announcements aimed at ending the violent game where a group of youths videotape a member of their gang striking a random stranger with the intent of knocking them out with one punch.
“The knockout game is not a game,” Rev. Sharpton said in a YouTube video. “It is vicious. It is ugly. It must be stopped.”
Sharpton then released a statement saying the game cannot be tolerated.
“These kids are targeting innocent people, and in many cases specifically targeting Jewish folks. We would not be silent if it were the other way around, and we will not be silent now. This behavior is racist, period. And we will not tolerate it,” he wrote.
Russell Simmons said in his video that those who participate in the game are cowards.
“How come you all want to hit people that look like they’ve got on devotional clothing and might not hit you back? Why don’t you hit somebody that might hit you back?” Simmons said in a video.
A newly elected New York Councilwoman wrote in an open letter that said many of her black constituents feel threatened by the growth of the Jewish community and that could be contributing to the increase in violence.
Two more victims of the knockout game were reported to police as a New York official admitted the attacks are happening primarily to Jewish residents.
Eli Leidner, a 26-year-old Hasidic Jew, was attacked at 10:40 p.m. in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York by a woman who ran up and sucker punched him. The woman then stood laughing as Leidner lay on the floor.
Leidner told police that two people came at him but only the woman struck him in the face.
While police officials are loathe to acknowledge the knockout game officially, some New York officials are at least admitting a pattern of assaults. New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he could see a connection in the attacks.
“It seems clear that overwhelmingly here in New York the victims have been Jewish, there’s no question about that,’ Hikind told New York radio station WCBS. ‘You have New Yorkers who are afraid to walk the streets, afraid to let their kids walk the in streets because you don’t know who the next victim is going to be.”
Meanwhile, a 63-year-old Philadelphia man was beaten by a group of four black youths according to a witness. She said that the gang attacked the man out of nowhere, knocked him to the ground with a punch to the head and cheered while two of the youths recorded the attack on their cell phones.
The man was hospitalized with head and chest injuries.
The Mayor of Philadelphia has stepped up to say that the “knockout game” spreading across the country in major cities will not be tolerated in his town.
“This is not a game. You can seriously injure or possibly kill someone,” Mayor Michael Nutter said at a press conference. “Your child’s life will be dramatically changed, and probably yours as well as a parent. So let’s cut out the nonsense. There are many other things that people can do to enjoy themselves. This is not one of them.”
The “knockout game” is where a victim is randomly assaulted by striking them in the head with the intention of knocking them out with one punch while the incident is recorded on a cell phone or other device.
The Mayor said anyone caught committing a crime connected to the “knockout game” would face charges ranging from aggravated assault to third degree murder. He has instructed the city’s district attorney to use the most serious charges available for any attack and prosecute to the fullest extent.
Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey encouraged parents to be involved with their children, ask them if they know anyone engaging in the game and pay attention to who their children associate with during the day.
On November 13th, we reported in a story called Knock Out The Jew about Jewish residents in New York City being attacked over the previous months by gangs who attempted to knock out their victims with a single punch. A local rabbi said they were playing a “knockout game.”
Now, police in other northeastern cities are reporting that the “game” has made its way to their communities.
At least three knockout attacks have taken place in the Philadelphia area. Police in Lower Merion Township say two attacks took place in their jurisdiction. Philadelphia police detectives confirmed one attack taking place within the city.
Victim Mark Cumberland told CBS he is still suffering from blurred vision and having trouble breathing from the attack on November 11th. He was walking out of a pizza shop when he was attacked.
Two teens were arrested for attacking an elderly man on October 29th. Lower Marion police say the teens walked up to a 63-year-old man and just punched him in the mouth.
Police in Washington, D.C. confirm at least two attacks they believe to be “knockout game” incidents. In one attack, a woman riding a bike was punched in the nose and knocked to the ground.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is calling for an investigation into Planned Parenthood of Northern New England after saying they are ignoring FDA regulations by distributing abortion inducing drugs past the time approved by the FDA.
Planned Parenthood had been advertising that they can provide the drugs for 14 days longer than the approved time period given by the FDA. Continue reading →
As temperatures increase for the summer, scientists are noting an increase in ticks infected with Lyme disease. They have also released a study that shows an increase in Lyme disease rates in 21 states.
“There is a lot of different theories of Lyme disease increasing because of warming temperatures,” said Dr. Liza Whalen. Continue reading →
Government officials throughout the northeast U.S. are telling residents to “stock up” on supplies and to prepare for extended power outages as a massive winter storm moves into the region.
The National Weather Service says two separate weather systems are combining over New England and says the storm could be “historic.” The storm will start Friday and is not expected to peak until Saturday morning somewhere over Massachusetts. Continue reading →
