Does your paper report this from time to time (punching a stranger with no apparent motive)?

[Mops]

Something that I wonder at is what I seem to read in my local paper every few weeks, covering a town/district area of some 200k-300k people in a modestly prosperous region of south-west Germany:


someone walks down a sidewalk minding his/her own business
he/she passes a stranger (usually described as a young or middle-aged man)
suddenly, with no prior altercation, the stranger punches the victim
the perpetrator does not follow up with robbery, sexual assault or anything else that would point to a motive, but runs/walks away. (of course there are reports of similar assaults where the perp, or more usually a group, then takes a wallet/a mobile phone/a handbag etc. This is not what my question is about - it makes (a stupid kind of) sense.)


This does not seem to be a recent thing but something that I recollect reading about for decades. I don't recollect reading many trial reports about such senseless assaults - if and when the perpetrators get caught the trial seems not to rate a journalist's presence.

Do you also notice this kind of report in your local media?

Any law/law enforcement Dopers here who recognize this type of assault and can shed some light on motives? Do I miss some subtext here?

[Neverender]

In the UK it happens but tends to be filmed by a mobile phone camera. Google 'happy slapping' to see what I mean.

[Pantani]

I'm guessing this is a world wide thing. People with mental health/drug/anger/impulse control isssues who are having a bad day. From time to time some one falls and hits their head and gets a serious injury or dies, which kind of sucks when you are just going around your normal bussiness.

[Mk VII]

And we never did find out from Kenneth what the frequency was ...

[Lynn Bodoni]

In the UK it happens but tends to be filmed by a mobile phone camera. Google 'happy slapping' to see what I mean. What happens when someone "happy slaps" someone with a quick temper? While I'm fairly slow to anger IRL, once I get pissed off, I tend to respond with enough force to discourage any further attacks upon my person. I can and have broken bones on people who were doing things like picking me up repeatedly. I told the guy that I didn't want to be picked up, and he kept on doing it. I slapped him a couple of times, and then at the last, I punched him in the ribs. I didn't MEAN to break a rib, but I wasn't remorseful about it, either. He just didn't understand that touching me (and the other women in our workplace), let alone picking us up, was not just fun and games on both our parts. He also thought it was fun to hug and kiss random female co-workers. I think that he finally learned that "no means no" when it comes to touching people.