Posted on 06/22/2005 9:55:59 AM PDT by ambrose
Mon 20 Jun 2005
'Happy Slap' Teenager Not to Face Charges
By Pat Hurst and Hugo Duncan, PA
A teenager who left a schoolgirl battered and unconscious in a “happy slap” attack will not face charges, it was revealed today.
The youngster attacked Becky Smith, 16, so friends could film the assault for fun on their mobile phones in a youth craze known as “happy slapping”.
But the police have decided Becky’s attacker should only receive a caution for the assault.
Becky was left with a black eye, bruises and cuts in a “sick” attack launched by a fellow school pupil in Blackley, Manchester.
She was jumped from behind by the youngster, also 16, knocked to the ground and spent two days in hospital.
A gang of five boys filmed the attack and the video clip was passed around school via mobile phones, and was shown to Becky’s brother Craig, 13.
The victim’s mother, Georgina Smith, 39, described the incident as “sickening” and said her daughter had been left terrified and did not want to go back to school because other pupils had watched the video of the attack.
Becky, who is taking her GCSEs at Plant Hill High School in Blackley, was attacked on May 9, and spent two days at North Manchester General Hospital before going home.
A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said a 16-year-old girl was due to answer to bail tomorrow and it was “very likely” she would receive a caution over the incident.
The attack on Becky was the latest in a string of violent “happy slapping” incidents – including the alleged rape of an 11-year-old girl.
It involves children attacking other youngsters or random passers-by and recording the attacks on their mobiles.
Videos of the “slaps” are then exchanged between phones and posted on the Internet as a joke.
Last month, two 18-year-olds were jailed for six-and-half years each after setting fire to a stranger and filming the attack on a phone.
Victim Matthew Kitchen, 41, had fallen asleep in a bus shelter in Bury, Greater Manchester, when Benjamin Mortenson and David Smolinski set him alight. Mr Kitchen nearly died.
The video footage was shown at Bolton Crown Court, and features the pair shouting: “This is the funniest thing I have ever seen ... We’re gonna kill him ... He’s on fire.”
I would not mess around with one of these guys for anything! We had a Black Belt guy teaching in the school and this guy was the only person I ever met that I would rather face a gun than take him on. Un-freaking-believable how devastating an attack they produce.
In our school, at first level black, one has to perform the first seven of eight basic kata, the first six "perfectly," which means well enough to add in a little individual interpretation, and the last, and the seventh, Kusan, well enough. (It's really, really hard.) There are other kata, but only eight that count for promotion.
Next, one has to defeat two out of three first level black belts in mostly full contact kumite, preferably people one doesn't know personally (we have contacts with several other schools in the South for this purpose--I'm going to fight some Fort Bragg guys for mine). "Mostly" means it'll hurt without causing lasting damage.
There is also a teaching requirement, which I've been satisfying as I go along. I love teaching.
No weapons kata are ever required, though I've studied bo for quite a few years now.
Anyway, other schools may have other requirements. These are ours.
Sounds to me as if we need to withdraw from Iraq and spread a little "democracy" in GB. Just kidding Brits.
Oh, I'm sorry...
Since I'm in better shape now, the training is more a pleasure than work, if you know what I mean. I run my kata every day; nothing unusual in that. I teach class twice a week, and fight as often as I can--usually three times a week.
Our classes last two hours. Black-and-brown belt classes can go on for three. It's a good kind of exhaustion, which I wouldn't be able to do if I had any kind of real job. (I'll be putting in more teaching hours come the fall. It's my first year, and the new guy gets overworked.)
Down East, where I come from (that's Southeastern North Carolina), slapping boys don't survive the inevitable retaliation. Now that I'm older, there's legal complications involved. It makes me sad.
I never heard of the fighting other schools, but that sounds interesting. How confident are you? Are you training daily?
BJJ is probably the hardest thing I've ever done.
I would recommend that EVERYONE who trains a traditional art add some grappling/groundfighting as a good complement (unless you're training Judo, which is already grappling).
We have a couple Kenpo black belts that train with us for the crosstraining benefit.
SO you are a Black Belt in Brazilian Jui Jitsu?
I heard they are the best!
I looked into them but there are none in my area, I wanted badly to study with them.
I consider myself an excellent fighter, but my weakness is kata. As my instructor once said: "Too much martial, not enough art." I'm spending an hour a day on kata along, trying to compensate. I just hope I don't tie myself into knots trying too hard on the day of the exam.
What do you have on your written exam?
1) No, I'm still white after a year and half (takes about two years to get from white to blue, on average).
There's less than 500 American blackbelts in BJJ.
2) Where do you live? Maybe I can locate a school for you?
I need more practice with kicks. Isshinryu emphasizes close quarter fighting, with few kicks--and none higher than theshoulder. this is going to hurt me in a freestyle tournament, I just know it.
The written exam is for history of the art plus lots of pressure point emphasis.
Clinch, takedown, ground and pound.
No high kicks necessary.
Same here. I'm very self conscious about doing Kata in front a a crowd and tend to stiffen up too much (no dirty jokes). In sparring? Now there is where I excel!
I looked about a year and a half ago, before my accident, but could not find a Gracie school near me.
We say "grab, twist, and mash 'em to the ground." If people knew that inside fighting was actually so simple, the martial arts would lose its aura.
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