Sadly, I can now attest that polar bearing, aka the Knockout Game, is real, happening more frequently than is being reported and is undeniably race related.

It pains me to admit all of those facts. I don't want any of it to be true.

But.

My niece spent the night in ER after being jumped from behind, held by her hair and strangled to the point she was struggling to breathe, thrown to the ground, kicked in the head and...not mugged. Clumps of her hair were pulled from her scalp. She was carrying a backpack with an iPad, cell phone, brand new still in packaging MAC lipsticks and eye shadows she'd just purchased for holiday gifts, $22 in cash and several high denomination gift cards she received for her birthday - paydirt for robbers, even better than credit cards - and none of it was stolen. The iPad and MAC cosmetics fell out of her backpack as she struggled while being strangled. They were left on the ground a few feet away from where my niece landed when she fell to the ground. Lest you think "guys don't care or know about the value of MAC cosmetics and wouldn't bother to steal them," here's the disturbing and puzzling part: Her attacker was a teenaged girl. Teenaged girls of all races know and covet MAC cosmetics. And iPads, for that matter. But they didn't steal anything of cash value from niece.

This attack happened at 3:00 in the afternoon in a safe and busy part of a small town bordering a college campus. Police were on foot patrol just a block away. Fortunately it was only a few seconds before two older women realized what happened to my niece and came to her aid and called 911.

My niece heard young girls giggling behind her as she walked on the sidewalk. It was around the time a local high school is dismissed for the day she didn't think anything about it. Then she heard them yell, in unison, "Polar Bear!" and seconds later her she was in a stranglehold with a girl pulling her hair and saying, "your hair ain't gonna be pretty no more." She heard the other girls giggling and cheering on her attacker in the distance. Her attacker said other things to her through laughs and taunts as she strangled my niece and pulled her hair, but my niece was more focused on fighting off the attacker than the taunts being said to her. The terms snow bunny and Barbie were used, and not in complimentary ways.

The police told her they are lots of surveillance cameras that undoubtedly captured the attack, so hopefully the girls will be recognizable and some justice can (and will) be served. The police told my niece she's the third young woman to be similarly attacked in the area in the past few weeks. The victims are not robbed. Their hair is pulled from behind, they're strangled, thrown to the ground and kicked while a group in the distance laughs and taunts.

My niece will be okay, she's bruised and has scalp wounds where her hair was pulled out in clumps, but obviously she's shaken and scared. Which is the attackers' desired result and purpose of the attacks. It is violence for the sake of violence. Putting aside the racial epithets indicating race motivation, the attackers were women. Young girls. Getting a laugh out of attacking another women. Were they really so envious of my niece's hair (which is gorgeous) that they were moved to physical violence? Can that really be happening?

Part of me wants to get to the bottom of it, understand the motivation, pinpoint the issues that led to these girls' thirst for violence and lack of regard for life. Understanding leads to resolution, right? The other part of me doesn't care about these girls, their homelife, their social, familial and cultural challenges, what video games they play, television shows and music they like. Why such a callous, unenlightened attitude? Because they chose violence as a form of entertainment. End of discussion.

Yes, I'm obviously angry. This is my always cheerful niece who is generous and kind, and, ironically, is taking classes in child development because she wants to help at risk junior high school kids. So far she's too stunned to think about that irony or reevaluate her plans. Given her compassionate and sunny nature I doubt she will let this alter her outlook or plans.

For the record, my niece is street smart and savvy. She doesn't dress flamboyantly or wear headphones or text when she's out and about. She did the things we're told to do when out in public: be alert and aware. She wasn't "asking for it."

I'm relaying all of this as a warning to anyone who thinks reports of these attacks are exaggerated, or that it won't happen to them, or in their town or to anyone they know.