The issue surrounding the laws of one punch knockouts were back in the media after the Parliament of New South Wales passed a law that stated that there is a mandatory eight-year prison terms for anyone who fatally punches someone while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, introduced back in Late-January 2014. The dispute concerns if the law should be harsher laws for these one punch knockouts or more commonly known as “Coward’s Punch.” There has been a large amount of people talking about how the laws should be stricter because it kills and severely hurts so many people every day and every night. But on the other hand people decide to disagree because they realise that people are under the influence of alcohol and drugs and they are not in the right state of mind and don’t know and have no control over what they’re doing. It is absolutely crucial that the laws should be stricter for the coward’s punch because what if someone close to you got knocked out after a night out and was in a critical condition, what would you do and how would you feel?
It is obvious that one-punch knockouts harm and kill many people each day and night, it has “knock out” in its name and to knock out means to fatally punch your opponent to the point of unconsciousness. Statistics of all 175 of the “Coward’s Punches” from February 2005 to August 2012 say that 96% of victims and 98% of attackers were male and 94% were in groups, 53% of the time the attacker was aged between 18-30, 70% of the attacks were either in or in the vicinity of a pub or nightclub, 71% of the attacks were in the timeframe of 10 o’clock in the evening and 4 o’clock in the early morning. The number of cases have died down over the last 11 years where there were 29 cases in 2006 but then only 7 in 2012. Out of the 175 cases, 20 of those lead to death and 155 people were hospitalised. That may only seem like a small number, it’s only 12% but if you really think about it, that’s 20 lives lost, think about what some of those people could’ve gone on to do, they could’ve gone onto do greater things with their lives but they can’t because they’ve been killed by a king hit. It’s not just a matter of 20 lives being lost, it’s also a matter of 20 families grieving over their loss of their family member and not just that, it’s 175 families that have been worried by these king hits because they have sent most of the time innocent men and women to hospital because of the alcoholic problem of another human being (most of the time) and sometimes the alcoholic problem of another human being, being the victim. It is a rare occasion that you have a close family member of yours sent to the hospital because of a sucker punch that has sent them into a state of unconsciousness but when that is the case, it is a very traumatic experience for the whole family because they all worry and its many trips between hospital and lawyers and all of that unnecessary franticness that shouldn’t happen. So if the king hit laws were increased, it would tell the people to be careful when they consume many amounts of alcohol because if they do harm someone, it’ll be a really harsh penalty.
Getting knocked out is a low in itself but what’s even lower is getting king hit while the person is under the influence of alcohol. In Victoria, a sucker punch is classed as manslaughter which is a mandatory 10-year prison sentence but there is no law if someone is under the influence of illicit substances. However, if you are driving and you kill someone, that is a mandatory 7-year prison sentence but if you are driving and caught to be under the influence of alcohol with a 0.05+ blood alcohol level (BAC) or an illicit drug, the penalty is doubled with a 14-year prison sentence. This should be the same with the one-punch knockout laws because there is a difference when someone is under the influence of illicit substances because no one in their right mind would go up to someone and king hit them for no reason so of course they would have to be certifiably insane or under the influence of drugs to do something like that. As stated before 70% of the attacks were either in or in the vicinity of a pub or nightclub, 71% of the attacks were in the timeframe of 10 o’clock in the evening and 4 o’clock in the early morning which tells the people that in a majority of these attacks, the attackers and sometimes the victims are under the influence of some kind of alcohol or drug. An example of where this law should be enforced is the manslaughter of a young teenager by the name of Thomas Kelly when he was killed by Kieran Loveridge during a night out on July 7th 2012 on the notorious Sydney party strip Kings Cross where Loveridge was charged only 4 years of prison but since he was involved in 4 other acts of assault that same night was charged seven years and two months behind bars with a non-parole period of five years and two months and the earliest he will be eligible for release is November 18, 2017. So, for four counts of assault and one count of manslaughter on one big night out, a penalty of just over 7 years was charged, that’s the same sentence if you killed someone while driving, if you compare the two, they don’t really deserve the same amount of jail time do they?
There’s always two sides to an argument, for this argument it’s that the laws for king hits are fine how they are or should be decreased. The people that are on this side have views that state that the attacker was not in the right state of mind because they were under the influence of drugs or the assault was provoked or other things like that. While they might be right or they think they are right but when you get drunk, will you get into a fight? Will you knock someone out? Probably not. Why you may ask? Because you have made the decision ahead of time to never ever do that because it would hurt, so why can’t people learn to not harm other people? If we as a society make that decision before we drink, just like the decision not to knock someone right out on the spot, then it won’t happen when we are drunk. Although when you are under the influence you might not be able to control all of your behaviour but you should be able to tell the difference between a right and wrong decision and so you can’t be excused for your decisions. Before you go out you have to understand that you’re still liable for all of your actions you undertake. People do a lot of dumb things when their drunk but you never go as far as a sucker punch.
Twenty deaths may not seem like a lot but in reality it is because we don’t know what those people could’ve gone on to do. They could’ve been the person to cure cancer, the next Elvis Presley or maybe even someone with a billion-dollar idea. Most of the cases of the king hits were all outside clubs which means most of the victims would’ve been around the age of 18-30 and so they have many years of life ahead of them and who knows what they could’ve done in their lifespan. A perfect example of this is the brain surgeon who got punched earlier this year outside the Box Hill hospital because he told a man to stop smoking within the vicinity of a non-smoking zone which later resulted in the man punching him from behind. Then, Dr Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann (aged 41) was knocked out and sent to intensive care and then four weeks later, passed away from his brain damage injuries. The man was a father of twins, imagine growing up without a dad and how hard it would be for his wife to take care of both of the children and still mourn and grieve over the loss of her husband. Added to that, he was a well-respected surgeon at the hospital he worked at and he probably had another 15-20 years working in the business and as a heart surgeon, he could save so many lives but some of those people he would’ve operated on might of lost their lives so it’s a chain of losing many lives from one king hit. It shows that people that get king hit may not have a bright future when they might of, but we don’t know because we don’t see them achieving their full potential because of the injuries they sustain from the hit.
Ultimately, the law for one-punch knockouts which varies between the cases, should be higher because they harm and kill many people each day and night, there are people that get under the influence of alcohol and illicit drugs and harm others and that’s not an excuse because when you are under the influence, you still have control over what you say and should know between what’s right and what’s wrong and killing people makes life so short and people do not live up to their potential but remember if someone you had a close relationship to underwent something like this, how would you react? Would you be concerned? Would you be angry at the attacker? Or would you stay calm and collected while all of the commotion is going on.