Freshcraft in is pictured in LoDo on July 26, 2013.
Freshcraft in is pictured in LoDo on July 26, 2013. (Grant Hindsley, The Denver Post)

So the three assaults in LoDo early New Year's Day were not examples of the "knockout game," the ugly phenomenon in which thugs level a passing stranger with a single punch. Or so Denver police concluded Thursday, and they seem to have good reason for their theory.

To begin with, one victim was robbed. Another was punched more than once.

We're not sure the news is even reassuring, given how badly the victims were hurt.

That's one reason we were a bit surprised to hear Chief Robert White, in a recent interview, describe LoDo as "safe."

"I do think it's safe. Is it free of crime? No, it's not free of crime, just given the magnitude of the number of individuals down there," White told 7News.

To be sure, LoDo is hardly a battle zone. But it is not just another neighborhood, either. It's the most dangerous part of Denver between 1 and 3 a.m., according to an analysis cited last year by The Denver Post, and it serves no good to downplay that reality.