This is a deadly weapon. We need to get the message out to our youth. And you know what? “One Punch Can Kill” sounds like a good starting point to me. As does, “Walk Away, Chill Out.
From AP
How many times have we all said “You know, I could kill that bloody referee!”
Tragically, now, a Dutch linesman has actually died after being beaten by players in the aftermath of a youth match the day before.
RIchard Nieuwenhuizen set out to run the line at a kids soccer game. Now he’s dead.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen collapsed and was rushed to the hospital hours after players from Amsterdam club Nieuw Sloten punched and kicked him.
Nieuwenhuizen’s club, Buitenboys, said the 41-year-old linesman died Monday evening but did not announce the exact cause of death.
Three players, whose ages range from 15 to 16, were arrested earlier Monday for alleged involvement in the beating in the town of Almere.
It remains unclear why the players beat Nieuwenhuizen, but they certainly weren’t justified. The police haven’t ruled out making more arrests as their investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Nieuw Sloten have already announced that they banned the players arrested from the club and pulled their team out of the league.
Apart from this terrifying loss of control by the boys concerned, this story highlights something that we are always concerned about at Wellthisiswhatithink, namely, that as little as a single blow can kill someone. Tragic cases happen all the time, they are in the news regularly.
Typically, one teenage boy hits another, usually fuelled by alcohol, and the next thing we know one boy is dead and another is on trial for murder or manslaughter, their life ruined. Two families destroyed.
We see campaigns, constantly, persuading youth not to carry guns or knives. Well, we think we are long overdue a broad public education campaign reminding boys – whatever they see in popular media, and surely the casual violence of continual fist fights in Hollywood movies must have de-sensitised us to the use of punching – that fist fights kill, and a single blow can be all it takes.
Zero tolerance for violence. Nothing else is acceptable.
I found this site, One Punch Can Kill, from Queensland, which is a start. Well done them. But we need a wider campaign reaching youth around the world. The yield will be hundreds if not thousands of young lives saved, and a similar number saved from having their lives ruined by a moment of insanity. Surely social media – YouTube, Facebook, would be perfect to get the message out to the right audience. And it should be reinforced at the places that matter – clubs, pubs, public transport, on the streets.
You may also care to checkout the Matthew Stanley Foundation. Matthew was just 15 when he died attending a party in Queensland. 1,000 people attended his funeral.
Great advice. Simple, memorable.
The Matthew Stanley Foundation are responsible for the “Walk Away, Chill Out” campaign.
Walk Away, Chill Out.
If only we could get that simple message out there so EVERY young person hears it.
Ideas, comments, help, all welcome.
Well, This Is What I Think 
I don’t care for sport that much, but I did get caught up in the Olympics and for a sustained period was able to see the great benefits of sport. The games are gone and we are left with football. That in my view, is the problem. The acute tribalism of the game has lead to so much violence world wide – more than any other human activity that I can think of (apart from war).
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I suspect religious factionalism is more indictable than football. Then again, they are very similar …
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BTW I understand the killing did involve ethnic/religious differences as well as losing a football match
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Which makes it even more depressing, I guess. Thanks for stopping by and commenting …
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I’ve studied martial arts off and on for most of my life, and you are very right about one hit being able to kill. That very fact is what I’ve been taught to help me learn to control myself. I know that I can easily kill a person in a matter of seconds depending on the situation. As a result, I learned to simply walk away from situations that could lead to a fight, and to only use enough force to get out of the situation.
I wonder if simply letting people know that one punch could put them in jail for murder would help the general population learn other ways of dealing with their anger. Then again, I live in city where gun violence is on the rise and simply telling people not to do it hasn’t gotten us anywhere. It’s a tough problem, but any positive action is better than nothing.
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I really do wonder if we have become so de-sensitized to casual use of fists on TV shows especially that we simply don’t realize a single blow can kill? Simply getting that message out might help prevent tragedies …
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