CMYK ➛
THE TIMES LEADER www.timesleader.com
N
E
W
S
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011 PAGE 15A
‘Knockout’ game can have tragic consequences Unprovoked attacks at heart of violence that targets random victims. By JIM SALTER Associated Press
Bank aide charged with scamming some elderly Man who worked at Pottstown Wells Fargo allegedly skimmed money from accounts. By JEREMY ROEBUCK The Philadelphia Inquirer
A personal banking assistant at a Wells Fargo branch in Pottstown was arrested last week and accused of stealing more than $9,000 from elderly clients, Montgomery County prosecutors announced Friday. Investigators allege Jon Dugan, 28, of Douglassville, withdrew thousands of dollars from the accounts of at least six elderly clients, who gave him access to the accounts. When confronted with the alleged thefts, he denied he had stolen the money, then purportedly tried to return it to at least one customer, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said. “He purposefully targeted elderly victims in the hopes of deliberately deceiving (them) with unsolicited, confusing, persistent financial advice,” she said. The thefts came to light this summer after several customers at the branch noticed money missing from their accounts. According to court filings, Dugan often urged customers to make transfers they did not want, consolidate accounts, or sign blank withdrawal slips. While many of his purported victims would later tell detectives they did not understand Dugan’s financial advice, they agreed to go along with it because they trusted him. In one case, Dugan purportedly convinced an 82-year-old customer who lost her checkbook that she should move money between her accounts to protect her cash. The woman agreed, but Dugan allegedly stole $230 of the $2,230 she authorized him to transfer. Wells Fargo’s corporate security confronted Dugan in August after an 87-year-old customer reported $1,100 missing. Within hours, Dugan was purportedly spotted making a deposit in that sum back into her account with a debit card he had drawn up in her name, according to the criminal complaint filed in his case. Dugan was arraigned Friday morning on charges of theft, forgery, and fraud. He was released on a $25,000 bond. It remained unclear whether he had retained an attorney.
AP FILE PHOTO
Matt Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a recent trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly when he was the victim of a brutal attack known as ‘Knockout King.’
last spring. The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group — usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases — chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a vic-
tim. Unlike typical gang violence or other street crime, the goal is not revenge, nor is it robbery. The victim is chosen at random, often a person unlikely to put up a fight. Many of the victims have been elderly. Most were alone.
The attacker charges at the victim and begins punching. If the victim goes down, the group usually scatters. If not, others join in, punching and kicking the person, often until he or she is unconscious or at least badly hurt.
and saw a group of kids who looked out of place, suspicious, but I shrugged it off. I got around to the library, and the next thing I remember is waking up on the corner with the mayor standing next to me. I tried to say ‘hi’ but my jaw was broken.” It isn’t clear how long Knockout King has been around, nor is the exact number of attacks known. The FBI doesn’t track it separately, but Slay said he has heard from several mayors about similar attacks and criminologists agree versions of the game are going on in many places. St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom said the city has had about 10 Knockout King attacks over the past 15 months. Experts say it is a grab for attention. “We know that juveniles don’t think out consequences clearly,” said Beth Huebner, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “They see something on YouTube and say, ‘I want to get that sort of attention, too.’ They don’t think about the person they’re attacking maybe hitting their head.”
Occupy Wall Street items must-have collectibles Museums and other groups rummage for buttons, signs, posters and documents.
By CRISTIAN SALAZAR and RANDY HERSCHAFT Associated Press
NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street may still be working to shake the notion it represents a passing outburst of rage, but some establishment institutions have already decided the movement’s artifacts are worthy of historic preservation. More than a half-dozen major museums and organizations from the Smithsonian Institution to the New-York Historical Society have been avidly collecting materials produced by the Occupy movement. Staffers have been sent to occupied parks to rummage for buttons, signs, posters and documents. Websites and tweets have been archived for digital eternity. And museums have approached individual protesters directly to obtain posters and other ephemera. The Museum of the City of New York is planning an exhibition on Occupy for next month. “Occupy is sexy,” said Ben Alexander, who is head of special collections and archives at Queens College in New York, which has been collecting Occupy materials. “It sounds hip. A lot of people want to be associated with it.”
To keep established institu- and around the world. Many were tions from shaping the move- forcibly cleared. Much of the frenzied collection ment’s short history, protesters have formed their own archive by institutions began in the early group, stashing away hundreds weeks of the protests. In part, of cardboard signs, posters, fliers, they were seeking to collect and buttons, periodicals, documents preserve as insurance against the and banners in temporary stor- possibility history might be lost age while they seek a permanent — not an unusual stance by archivists. home for the materiWhat appears to be als. “Occupy is different is the level of “We want to make surewecollectitfrom sexy. It sounds interest from mainstream institutions our perspective so hip. A lot of across a wide geothat it can be represented as best as pos- people want to graphicspectrumand the new digital-only sible,” said Amy Ro- be associated ventures that have berts, a library and insprung up to preserve formation studies with it.” graduate student at Ben Alexander the movement’s onQueens College who Head of special line history. collections and The lavish attenhelped create the ararchives at Queens tion poured on the libchives working College in New York eral-leaning movegroup. ment has not gone unThe archives group noticed by conservahas been approached by institutions seeking to borrow tives. Judicial Watch, a conservative or acquire Occupy materials. Roberts said they were discussing watchdog group, blogged sarcasdonating the entire collection to tically under its “Corruption the Tamiment Library and Rob- Chronicles” about the choice by ert F. Wagner Labor Archives at the Smithsonian to document New York University. Tamiment Occupy. “It looks like it’s taxpayer-funddeclined to comment. A handful of protesters began ed hoarding, as opposed to rigorcamping out in September in a ous historical collecting,” said lower Manhattan plaza called Tom Fitton, president of the orgaZuccotti Park, outraged at Wall nization. The Smithsonian said its Street excess and income inequality; they were soon joined American history collection also by others who set up tents and now includes materials related to promised to occupy “all day, all the massive tea party rally night.” Similar camps sprouted against health care reform in in dozens of cities nationwide March 2010 and materials from
Items from the New York Historical Society’s growing collection of Occupy Wall Street materials. More than a half dozen major museums and organizations from the Smithsonian Institution to the NewYork Historical Society have been avidly collecting materials produced by the Occupy movement for preservation.
AP PHOTO
the American Conservative Union’s Washington, D.C., conference in February. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University launched OccupyArchive.org in mid-October on a hunch that it could become historically important. So far, it has about 2,500 items in its online database, including compressed files of entire Occupy websites from around the country and hundreds of images scraped from photo-sharing site
Flickr. “This kind of social movement is probably more interesting to me, to be honest about it. And also so much of it is happening digitally. On webpages. On Twitter,” said Sheila Brennan, the associate director of public projects. “I guess I didn’t see as much of that with the tea party.” Curators and those in charge of collections at institutions said it was not too soon to think about preserving elements of the Occupy movement.
730925
ST. LOUIS — Matthew Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly. He remembers a group of loitering young people, a dimly lit street — then nothing. The next thing he knew he was waking up with blood pouring out of his head. The 51-year-old pizza kitchen worker’s surreal experience happened just before midnight earlier this year, when he became another victim of what is generally known as “Knockout King” or simply “Knock Out,” a so-called game of unprovoked violence that targets random victims. Scattered reports of the game have come from around the country including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Chicago. In St. Louis, the game has become almost contagious, with tragic consequences. An elderly immigrant from Vietnam died in an attack
Sometimes the attacks are captured on cellphone video that is posted on websites. “These individuals have absolutely no respect for human life,” St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said. Slay knows firsthand. He was on his way home from a theater around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 when he saw perhaps a dozen young people casually crossing a street. He looked to the curb and saw Quain sprawled on the pavement. Slay told his driver to pull over. They found Quain unconscious, blood pouring from his head and mouth. Quain was hospitalized for two days with a broken jaw, a cracked skull and nasal cavity injuries. He still has headaches and memory problems but was finally able to return to work earlier this month. Hundreds gathered in November for a fundraiser at the restaurant where he works, Joanie’s Pizza, but he still doesn’t know how he’ll pay the medical bills. “I don’t remember much of what happened,” Quain said. “I was hanging out with a friend, celebrating the Cardinals in the World Series. I went to the store