Bull y/ied
Mar. 17th, 2011 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravensweptThe lastest and fadest fad on the internet at the moment is this little gem:
[Imagine there's a Youtube video here, showing a scrawny little chickenshit bully punching a much larger and taller boy in the face and stomach after pushing him against a wall while his unseen friends egg him on, the larger kid doing nothing noticible and taking the punches, the beanpole dancing around on his feet as he gets more into in it as the big kid starts to deflect the punches, and then the big kid fights back, overwhelming the skinny snot, bear hugging him and pile-driving him down on his twiggy little head, the big kid walking away immediately having stopped his bully, and the turd-rail shakily and very wobbily getting to his feet and falling over with almost every step; I'd post another video, but I'd get tired of trying to re-embed a new vid everytime Youtube takes it down over "policy violation"]
Also known now as the "Zangief Kid", Casey Haynes kicked a bully's ass.Hopefully this video stays up a while, Youtube seems to be cracking down on how viral this thing went and taking them down.
The story and details surrounding it are now fairly easy to come by; Haynes, a sixteen-year old Australian school student, had been picked on and bullied for years prior to this incident. The bully in question, Richard Gale, is twelve-years old and maybe a third of Haynes weight and several inches shorter. So that says a lot to how down-trodden Haynes had been to let some little prick of a twig punch him in the face and stomach and not do anything; until he did.
What's more interesting is the mass empathy Haynes is recieving. The video is easy to find, and almost no comments from viewers see what's wrong in defending yourself, especially when he both didn't start the fight and didn't immediately retaliate. "Zangief Kid" came about when people started to compare him to the titular Street Fighter 2 wrestling character, who has a similiar pile-driver move, which in turn led to people make videos with Street Fighter music, sound effects and graphics (also easy to find). Ask the average person, they'd say that he did the right thing standing up for himself.
The average person not including anyone of authority. Teachers, police, school councilors, everyone whose job it is to prevent this kind of thing are all saying Haynes shouldn't have protected himself. Instead, he should have walked away, found an adult or continued to do nothing. To which I call signifigant bullshit.
Both boys were suspended from school, Gale for twenty-two days, Haynes for four. There's a lot of talk about how Haynes shouldn't be punished for his actions, but I'm in the minority on that. I accept his suspesion, because the school couldn't not do anything to him. The fact that his suspension was so short is, to me, acceptable face saving. That the school would never have done anything in the first place had he not defended himself is a whole other issue.
Except then they say that Haynes shouldn't have done anything. He should have walked away, told a teacher, the same song and dance kids everywhere are told. What they forget is that they, the school, already failed Haynes. He's been bullied and picked on for years before this, why would he think they could do anything to help? Besides being on school grounds, there were no teachers there to stop it. A teacher can't be everywhere to stop everything, the bullies are just going to make sure one isn't around when they start shit, and even if there was such a crack down the bullying would just move off campus. The school is not, and hasn't been, a safe haven from violence; instead it seems to breed it, as showed by the gaul of Gale to pick on someone five times out of his weight class.
Then this; the mother openly says her son got what was coming to him (though, as a mother, she also says the Haynes is older and bigger). She also says her son is being demonized by the viral spread of the video. It's true, if not for the internet and all the mass-communication venues (this one included), the story would have just stayed local, unless picked up by chance by an international network.
But the video shows a lot more than just a single fight; that her son is a bully of the worst kind. That he's been at it far longer than this one video shows. That his friends are bullies as well, or at minimum not stopping him and indeed egging him on. That her son got more aggressive when Haynes didn't just take the punches, and starts to boxer hop around him. The video was still going to end up on Youtube no doubt, though the original intention was for the bullies to have a laugh at the fat kid who they could beat up on. It got huge when the fat kid layed a smack down on his tormentors instead of just taking it.
The councilor in the video says that a victim can or should only retaliate equal to the threat; to which I again say bullshit. So what, Haynes therefore should only have punched the little bugger twice then? His only choice, instead of ending the threat, is dealing equally to a person who in no way was going to fight fair if he'd known the consequences? Haynes did the right thing, and stopped the threat to himself. He wasn't aggressive about it, he didn't fall on the kid and start wailing on him, he walked away after dropping the little turd. And what about his friend there; he was looking like he was gonna start another fight himself, it was only because an older girl got in front of him. But she doesn't stick around and make them walk the other way, she only slows him and then he still heads after Haynes. So what happened after the video?
I think the councilor is useless; and it may be because I don't like they way she presents the case or herself, but I'd say she may have been a victim of bullying herself. Her advice is nothing that's going to actually help anyone, not in ways that can do anything; don't be a victim, but don't do anything to defend yourself. Find an adult, who can't be everywhere with the victim at all times. Tell the school, which by all evidence only spouts empty words while not doing anything to help the students or the immediate surrounding community. The same claptrap repeated over and over, says to me that either she was a victim herself as a child, and so can't comprehend that someone could stand up for themselves without older authority, or she was never a victim herself and can't put herself in the mindset of someone who's daily life involves fearing what any number of people will do to them.
There's a lot more opinion out there, more pro-Haynes' than anti-defense, but it's all just talking in circles. The school won't change, therefore nothing will change. Haynes defended himself; will that make him safer, it's hard to say, things of this nature can go any number of ways, whether he's suddenly not picked on anymore because he's shown he can fight back or if he's ganged up on so that the bullies can feel supierior by attacking one kid in numbers because they can't take him on one-on-one, I don't know.
Haynes, to me, is in the right, and I doubt this event will fill him with unbounded confidence to start picking fights himself. I think Gale got what he what was coming to him, and he deserved the broken ankle and mild concussion he got for being both an asshat and bully. What I do not think is that enough is being said of the school or it's lack of ability to handle its students in any meaningful way, or that enough attention is being payed to the fact that Haynes has such a history of being bullied before this happened.
[Imagine there's a Youtube video here, showing a scrawny little chickenshit bully punching a much larger and taller boy in the face and stomach after pushing him against a wall while his unseen friends egg him on, the larger kid doing nothing noticible and taking the punches, the beanpole dancing around on his feet as he gets more into in it as the big kid starts to deflect the punches, and then the big kid fights back, overwhelming the skinny snot, bear hugging him and pile-driving him down on his twiggy little head, the big kid walking away immediately having stopped his bully, and the turd-rail shakily and very wobbily getting to his feet and falling over with almost every step; I'd post another video, but I'd get tired of trying to re-embed a new vid everytime Youtube takes it down over "policy violation"]
Also known now as the "Zangief Kid", Casey Haynes kicked a bully's ass.
The story and details surrounding it are now fairly easy to come by; Haynes, a sixteen-year old Australian school student, had been picked on and bullied for years prior to this incident. The bully in question, Richard Gale, is twelve-years old and maybe a third of Haynes weight and several inches shorter. So that says a lot to how down-trodden Haynes had been to let some little prick of a twig punch him in the face and stomach and not do anything; until he did.
What's more interesting is the mass empathy Haynes is recieving. The video is easy to find, and almost no comments from viewers see what's wrong in defending yourself, especially when he both didn't start the fight and didn't immediately retaliate. "Zangief Kid" came about when people started to compare him to the titular Street Fighter 2 wrestling character, who has a similiar pile-driver move, which in turn led to people make videos with Street Fighter music, sound effects and graphics (also easy to find). Ask the average person, they'd say that he did the right thing standing up for himself.
The average person not including anyone of authority. Teachers, police, school councilors, everyone whose job it is to prevent this kind of thing are all saying Haynes shouldn't have protected himself. Instead, he should have walked away, found an adult or continued to do nothing. To which I call signifigant bullshit.
Both boys were suspended from school, Gale for twenty-two days, Haynes for four. There's a lot of talk about how Haynes shouldn't be punished for his actions, but I'm in the minority on that. I accept his suspesion, because the school couldn't not do anything to him. The fact that his suspension was so short is, to me, acceptable face saving. That the school would never have done anything in the first place had he not defended himself is a whole other issue.
Except then they say that Haynes shouldn't have done anything. He should have walked away, told a teacher, the same song and dance kids everywhere are told. What they forget is that they, the school, already failed Haynes. He's been bullied and picked on for years before this, why would he think they could do anything to help? Besides being on school grounds, there were no teachers there to stop it. A teacher can't be everywhere to stop everything, the bullies are just going to make sure one isn't around when they start shit, and even if there was such a crack down the bullying would just move off campus. The school is not, and hasn't been, a safe haven from violence; instead it seems to breed it, as showed by the gaul of Gale to pick on someone five times out of his weight class.
Then this; the mother openly says her son got what was coming to him (though, as a mother, she also says the Haynes is older and bigger). She also says her son is being demonized by the viral spread of the video. It's true, if not for the internet and all the mass-communication venues (this one included), the story would have just stayed local, unless picked up by chance by an international network.
But the video shows a lot more than just a single fight; that her son is a bully of the worst kind. That he's been at it far longer than this one video shows. That his friends are bullies as well, or at minimum not stopping him and indeed egging him on. That her son got more aggressive when Haynes didn't just take the punches, and starts to boxer hop around him. The video was still going to end up on Youtube no doubt, though the original intention was for the bullies to have a laugh at the fat kid who they could beat up on. It got huge when the fat kid layed a smack down on his tormentors instead of just taking it.
The councilor in the video says that a victim can or should only retaliate equal to the threat; to which I again say bullshit. So what, Haynes therefore should only have punched the little bugger twice then? His only choice, instead of ending the threat, is dealing equally to a person who in no way was going to fight fair if he'd known the consequences? Haynes did the right thing, and stopped the threat to himself. He wasn't aggressive about it, he didn't fall on the kid and start wailing on him, he walked away after dropping the little turd. And what about his friend there; he was looking like he was gonna start another fight himself, it was only because an older girl got in front of him. But she doesn't stick around and make them walk the other way, she only slows him and then he still heads after Haynes. So what happened after the video?
I think the councilor is useless; and it may be because I don't like they way she presents the case or herself, but I'd say she may have been a victim of bullying herself. Her advice is nothing that's going to actually help anyone, not in ways that can do anything; don't be a victim, but don't do anything to defend yourself. Find an adult, who can't be everywhere with the victim at all times. Tell the school, which by all evidence only spouts empty words while not doing anything to help the students or the immediate surrounding community. The same claptrap repeated over and over, says to me that either she was a victim herself as a child, and so can't comprehend that someone could stand up for themselves without older authority, or she was never a victim herself and can't put herself in the mindset of someone who's daily life involves fearing what any number of people will do to them.
There's a lot more opinion out there, more pro-Haynes' than anti-defense, but it's all just talking in circles. The school won't change, therefore nothing will change. Haynes defended himself; will that make him safer, it's hard to say, things of this nature can go any number of ways, whether he's suddenly not picked on anymore because he's shown he can fight back or if he's ganged up on so that the bullies can feel supierior by attacking one kid in numbers because they can't take him on one-on-one, I don't know.
Haynes, to me, is in the right, and I doubt this event will fill him with unbounded confidence to start picking fights himself. I think Gale got what he what was coming to him, and he deserved the broken ankle and mild concussion he got for being both an asshat and bully. What I do not think is that enough is being said of the school or it's lack of ability to handle its students in any meaningful way, or that enough attention is being payed to the fact that Haynes has such a history of being bullied before this happened.
no subject
on 2011-03-18 01:08 am (UTC)I'm not sure in how it is elsewhere, but in Australia it is absolutely not out of the ordinary, or remotely uncommon, to have younger kids (esp. year 7s 8s) pick on older kids, particularly once they form gangs. I think it's something that many people here in a highschool here has personally witnessed, if they haven't experienced it themselves.
Haynes is something of a local hero now in Australia.
no subject
on 2011-03-18 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-03-18 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-03-18 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-03-18 02:14 am (UTC)That makes sense to me, in a sickening sort of way. It's so much easier to point and distract with violence, and to especially localize it as a individual incident, than it is to take a critical look at the larger issues at hand. The whole, "The system's fine! Really! It's just this one kid!" excuse.
no subject
on 2011-03-18 02:28 am (UTC)