Bullies

by Dick Mac

What makes a bully a bully? How does a person become a bully?

My experience is that those who participate in sociopathic or socially retarded behavior generally learned it at home. I do not exclude myself from that gross generalization.

Bullies have often been the victims of bullying by parents or older siblings. Child molesters have often been the victims of childhood sexual abuse. Wife-beaters are often the children of wife-beaters.

This notion is not a fact, of course; but it's a theory that is put forward often and seems to have some credence.

In our cartoonish culture, bullies are often depicted as larger kids picking on smaller kids; but that is hardly a fact. Sometime smart kids victimize those less erudite than them. Kids of a majority ethnicity sometimes bully kids of a minority ethnicity. Older kids sometimes bully younger kids. Adults sometimes demean and bully each other in the workplace. And it goes on.

Those who are bullied often tell stories about plotting revenge that never takes place, wishing that the bullies in their lives meet an accidental, and perhaps gruesome end, or fantasizing that someone smarter/bigger/faster does to the bully what is being done to them, or worse.

And then there are the stories of the victimized who fight back. Boys and girls (or men and women), who turn the tables. Battered women who murder their battering husbands, children who report their abusive parents to authorities, and then this:

Casey Heynes is a big kid, and the story on the Internet is that he was the focus of abuse by his high school classmates. He was the center of attention. He was the big kid that twerps and gang-members used as their target when they needed to prove themselves to each other.

In the following video, a student tries to pick a fight with the gentle giant, Casey, who really doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

This bully is what my friends called a "twerp" when we were in grade school. When looking for a description of a twerp, I found this:

(American colloquial) A small or puny person; one regarded as insignificant, contemptible. Get out of my way, you little twerp!
Wiktionary, the free dictionary

I think this bully is perfectly described by that definition!

The little twerp has at least two friends with him: one who is videotaping the incident and another who appears on camera briefly, but is moved away when he blocks the view. It is possible there are others behind the camera involved also intimidating Casey. Think for a moment what this little twerp was up to: he was videotaping his humiliation of a loner. For what? To show his friends? To post on the web to further humiliate Casey?

Well, see for yourself what happens:



Casey's only defender is a girl who appears on camera as the incident is winding-down. She comes to Casey's aid by blocking one of the twerp's friends from pursuing him.

Now the tables are turned on the little twerp: he is the object of humiliation on the internet. In every country, all over the planet, this little twerp is now the physical embodiment of a loser, a weak little bully who had the tables turned on him.

I hope more victims stand-up to their bullies!

There is an odd tribute page to Casey.